Aren’t the original artists entitled to some sort of royalties, even if the performer is some unknown band in a dive bar? What about the original artists of the songs performed by contestants on American Idol?
Rights to popular music are generally managed by intermediary licensing organizations. In the US, this is predominantly ASCAP and BMI. The way it works for live performances is that the VENUE has a license, which allows anything from the catalog to be performed. Should somebody want to RECORD it, that’s a different issue. The licenses are on a very complex sliding scale based on the type of venue.
That said, a venue like your corner bar featuring some local garage band may not have a license. They would be relying on the fact that they are simply too small scale for anybody to worry about. ASCAP has been known to sue operators of things like parades and political fund raisers for not having a license, though. If the bar regularly has bands and advertises, they may just pay the ASCAP fee, since they will be at the low end of the scale.
Some background with more detail, though the author of this article clearly has an axe to grind (scroll down to “How the system works”):
http://www.ram.org/ramblings/philosophy/fmp/royalty-politics.html
I play in a band, and I sometimes see a little sticker on the door or window of a club with the ASCAP or BMI logo. I assume this means that the club has piad a licensing fee.
Songwriters (often not the same people as the original performers) are entitled to royalties when their songs are performed for money. ASCAP and BMI are the two main agencies that collect the royalties. Performers don’t need permission to perform songs - all they have to do is pay the royalties to the correct agencies.
How is it different from playing in a concert/jazz band in high school or College? From what I was always told was that if you bought the sheet music you could perform for free, because you paid when you bought the music. However, if you charged money for your concert then you had to pay extra. Would this make a difference in the type of music, or were they just saying that because they didn’t know any better?
The copyright only applies to selling licensed recordings. Here’s where it gets vague.
A cover band selling tickets at $10 a pop and doing all AC/DC songs could technically be liable, but any of us singing “Back in Black” are in the clear since we’re not making money. It’s the same as standing on a street corner and singing it a’capella.
I suspect “tribute” and “bar” bands can do it cuz they charge a cover or entrance fee to see the band, hear someone do the songs, or most likely, the bar hires the band. This way the bar is what is charging tickets, the band is paid no matter what and they’re end of the deal is just to play music. hey. murderer’s have walked on weaker arguments
Cecil speaks: Must you get permission to record someone else’s song?
wasn’t clear on that 2nd paragraph. I meant kareoke (sp?) Are we to pay for every drunk that thinks he can sing Free Bird?
A related question:
I’ve always understood that while the songwriter may not be able to stop you covering their song, either live or by record, they do have a lot more control over what you can do to the song.
So if you add another verse or even change a single word, without the songwriter’s approval you are violating the copyright. Even if you are making no claims on the songwriter’s ownership.
I think this was the case in, as an example, when Cindy Lauper covered Prince’s “When U Were Mine”. Prince wouldn’t give her permission to swap genders in the lyrics, so she had to mangle her pronunciation of ‘Guy’ so it kind of sounded a bit like ‘Girl’.
Am I Correct?
It’s not just cover bands in tiny dives who have to pay ASCP/BMI.
In a famous case, ASCAP even sued the Girl Scouts for singing copyrighted songs around the campfire (The national organization now has its memebers sing from songbooks of out-of-copyright and custom-written songs)
(The link above was not chosen for being outstandingly informative. it was just the first of over 1000 that came up on a Google search