ASCAP & Dance Venues

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TheRiz
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ASCAP & Dance Venues

#1 Post by TheRiz » Thu Feb 12, 2009 2:46 pm

A local SF weekly-venue at a rented dance-space was recently served notice by ASCAP. Have you ever dealt with this situation?

Please comment @
http://www.yehoodi.com/phpBB2/viewtopic ... highlight=

--R

Toon Town Dave
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#2 Post by Toon Town Dave » Thu Feb 12, 2009 3:13 pm

Like I said on the yehoodi thread, something similar happened to a local Ballroom Dancing club with SOCAN (the Canadian version of ASCAP). They had some luck getting a lawyer involved to negotiate reduced penalties and better fees than was demanded.

Something you alluded to in that thread was mechanical rights with are a bigger deal in Canada than the U.S. Mechanical rights is about copying music from an original, commercial form (ie CD, tape or vinyl). In Canada a group called AVLA is responsible for that licensing. I was having a discussion with a dancer who was discussing it with co-workers at a law firm and it's questionable whether AVLA has any legal authority although it hasn't been tested in court yet. All professional DJs will usually have an AVLA license which are often included as part of DJ association memberships for a reduced fee.

AVLA is about copying for your own use (as a DJ), there is yet another group responsible for mechanical rights if you want to sell the copied music. Not only does this other group collect a fee, you still must negotiate rights with the copyright holder of the recording (usually a record label).

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Eyeball
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#3 Post by Eyeball » Fri Feb 13, 2009 5:21 am

Every big clump of years you hear about ASCAP going on the war-path after the smallest of fish to collect their due money. And then you don't.

They have to find you first.

(Historically, ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) went to war with radio for most of 1941. ASCAP wanted more money, radio networks said 'no', so all ASCAP music was banned from the radio in 1941. Unless you signed a new deal with ASCAP, your radio station could not broadcast ANY ASCAP licensed songs - which was just about everything....and that included recorded and any live performances.

What was left to play was public domain tunes and music licensed by BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated) the much newer licensing agency set up by the radio business in 1939 when they saw the ASCAP fire storm approaching.

ASCAP had requirements before they would admit you to their hallowed ranks. BMI didnt, so they had a lot of younger songwriters writing perfectly good songs which got a lot of radio exposure for most of the year.

The ban lasted ten months.)

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