Aside from buying the record, do clubs have to pay for anything else when playing copyrighted music?
Yes, they have to pay a license fee for public performance of the music. The fees are collected by whichever licensing agency the songwriter is registered with, usually either ASCAP or BMI.
Any time copyrighted music is performed in public for money, someone has to pay a fee to ASCAP and/or BMI. Believe it or not, if a musician plays one of his own compositions at a concert, money still has to go to ASCAP or BMI.
So yes, clubs that play records have to pay for it. So does a diner that sets up a radio for its patrons to hear broadcast music (on the other hand, a diner wouldn’t have to fees for a radio tuned to the same station if it’s in back where only the dishwasher can hear it). Jukebox owners have to pay fees. A baseball team has to pay fees for playing music over the P.A. between innings. A talk show has to pay fees when its orchestra plays copyrighted music.
How much would such a license usually cost a restaurant for typical popular songs? (of course I’m sure it varies greatly, but if there are any statistics I’d appreciate it). Also, do all such places follow the rules strictly? Who enforces it?
You’re right; it varies a lot. The licensing fees depend on whether music is live, recorded or recorded with a visual. They depend on how many people your establishment holds, whether or not you charge tickets and the number of nights per week you have music playing. For specific information, I’d check out ASCAP or BMI.
Suppose you’re playing music that’s not registered–would you have to ask the artist directly or something? Is it free?
And suppose it’s not covered by U.S. copyright–say, a song from France or Japan–would it matter then as well? (I’m guessing there’s still some sort of international copyright recognition, though…)
I am a DJ in Canada. Purchasing the CD here gives you the right to play the music publicly. However, you must prove that you own an actual, licensed CD which contains the track.
Ah. Cite:
http://www.avla.ca/license.html#DML
There is information in the “Info for DJs” and “Info for Licensed Establishments” PDFs. Warning, they’re PDFs.
It’s called the Berne Convention, and it basically means that all nations subscribing to it (including the US) will recognize copyrights from other nations. The song still has to be licensed for you to use it; usually ASCAP or BMI will handle those. If they don’t techincally, you’re in violation (in the US, at least).
Really? According to the web site you directed us to, you do not need an AVLA license if you are using the original LPs/cassettes/CDs you purchased in a store. However, the AVLA license is a license to copy the material, not to play or perform it in public. Elsewhere on the same site it says an AVLA license does not replace the mechanical licensing obtained from CMMRA, and also that an AVLA license doesn’t replace the performance licensing from SOCAN. In other words, you can get a license to copy CDs from AVLA, but not to play CDs of copyrighted material for money. You don’t need an AVLA license if you never copy a CD, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need a license to use it as a DJ.
Were that correct, radio stations that owned their own CDs wouldn’t have to pay fees to air copyrighted songs. They do.
Or could it be that broadcasting falls under a different category?
And whether or not your music is the prime entertainment or just background noise.
There are quite a few factors. If the restaurant or store sells the CDs and is playing them for demo purposes, there’s no fee. For stores, if it’s below a specific size (1,000 sq ft? I don’t remember) and the stereo has two or fewer speakers, or it’s being played from a “boom box,” there’s no fee.
BMI and ASCAP both have fee schedules on their Web sites. They have “agents” who drive around and visit places that don’t have contracts with them to see if they’re playing music. I own a bookstore, and I’ve gotten several phone calls where the person asks if I play music in the store. One time a guy called to ask an innocuous question and said, “I hear music playing in the background. Do you sell that CD?” I do sell CDs, BTW, and I only play the stuff I’m selling.
As an interesting aside, the BMI rep told me that I’d have to pay a fee to tune my store radio to the local radio station even though the radio station has already paid to broadcast that music.
I have heard all of the info stated by InvisibleWombat from reliable sources. If you’re playing music in a public place where conceivably anyone could walk in, you’re broadcasting the music and owe royalties. The reason you hear the radio on in Herb’s Auto Parts is that no one has the time and money to bother suing Herb, who has very shallow pockets. This is why you never hear commercials in Kroger, Safeway, Lowes, Home Depot, Taco Bell, etc. Suing these companies would pay handsomly, so they contract to services that already pay the fees.
I know of a coffee house in Fullerton, CA that had to start selling the CDs because the musicians they had in were aware of the royalty laws. So any music on the boombox had the CD case displayed next to it, and you could walk up and buy it from the house. In this way they dodged the fees.
As for the BMI rep stating that a rebroadcast owes fees, I’m guessing this is to nail down royalties from satellite stations. Was it called Z-Rock that was really a network of hard rock stations that simply relayed the signal out of Texas, via satellite? This is the kind of thing I’m thinking of.
ASCAP took some PR heat a couple of years back when they announced that they would step up collection of the fees from songs sung at summer camps
In the US, you can purchase a license through the Harry Fox Agency the allows for the public airing of music, whether prerecorded or live. The license is not required if the music come over the radio airwaves.
I’ve been playing cover songs in bars for a long time now and I have friends who have been doing so professionally for even longer. I have never heard anything the need to pay royalties. Are we technically violating the copyright laws? Are such small-time operations exempt, or is there a certain level below which enforcement is just considered impractical?
By having you play, the bar is causing public performance of the music, and thus pays the licensing.
The next time you go into a bar or restaurant, look to see if they have a small, green triangular sticker on or near the door that says “ascap” (and I forget what the BMI sticker looks like). If they do, they have paid ASCAP their licensing fee, and can play whatever ASCAP-licensed music they want, including having bands play cover songs.