ASCAP and BMI performance license fees for small venues
We've started the process of trying to get our band booked but keep running into venues that feature live music that haven't paid for their ASCAP or BMI venue licenses. They attempt to get around it by featuring acts that only perform their own original/copyrighted songs, but this unfortunately leaves out a good 80%-90% of the bands out there that perform songs copyrighted by others, including ours.
How expensive are these licenses? Most of these venues are small (<60 seats, restaurant/bars). Anyone have any idea what ASCAP and BMI charge for to license these kinds of places to host live music?
Tags: legal
Views: 28
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kevin George on -
Has this really hit Montana now?
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Permalink Reply by Levi Kujala (koo-ya-la) on -
Here you go: http://www.montanakaimin.com/archive/index.php/arts/arts_article/pa...
Looks like it's thousands of dollars a month.
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Permalink Reply by Capt Bob A. Lou on -
Good find, thanks!
Looks like Sean Kelly's pays $3K a year; the casino mentioned pays $2K a month for licensing fees, plus karaoke/sound system fees. Pretty broad range.
But at $58/week ($3000/52), that doesn't seem like too much to be legal (at the lower end), that's about the equivalent profit on an extra case of beer sold/week. That seems reasonable to me. But $2K/mo. ... not so much.
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Permalink Reply by Capt Bob A. Lou on
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Dug a little further, the fees are based on fire-code occupancy rates, and whether or not you charge a cover: http://www.montanakaimin.com/archive/index.php/opinion/opinion_arti...
The Kaimin did a pretty good job on this. Thanks!
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