On the elementary, middle and high school level. You buy an arrangement of the piece. That gives you the right to use the music and perform it. You ARE NOT allowed to make copies of the music, even if you are afraid of losing the originals. Most band directors (not I of course) break this rule. many parts even say not to copy.

Most band directors do not share illegal copies, that would be really unfair to the composer/arranger.

Brett

I believe this is considered "fair use," as long as schools and students legally acquire any books, recordings, etc. that they use.

If they have recital halls and host concert events they may be liable to pay for licensing fees.

So if a professor plays a Gershwin piece in class and then analyzes it verbally or on the blackboard and the college is charging the students to absorb this, does ASCAP barge in and demand a fee?
If I play a house party, get paid, and cover the Beatles, should I send a check to Paul?
Just wanna' know what makes sense and what is overzealous

I play a vineyard a few times a year. They have music 3 hours once a week.

BMI calls says they want $1000 every year, ASCAP call they want $1000 every year, SESAC calls want $1000 every year EVEN IF THEY JUST TURN ON THE RADIO!!!!!!!!!!!

They use strongarm tactics, threatening them. $3000 for 156 hours of music per year.

$20 per hour to play the radio when folks sip their wine.

I played last week, I played 4 beatles tunes and 5 standards, the rest I wrote or improvised.
Shouldn't I get $50 of the $60 owed? its my music. my copywritten tunes wheres my check from BMI.


Brett

apologies for the oversight, brett.

your $50.00 is on it's way (in the form of a gift card)

rock on!

love ya,
BMI

Are your works copywritten and licensed through BMI? Without BMI/ASCAP/SECAM representing a collection of artists you would have to obtain a license to perform from each individual artist. That would be a nightmare.

IP is difficult because it's not a tangible item and even less so as most music goes to digital download. The CD section at my local Target just halved again. On one hand, if I provide chairs and tables for a bar why do I just get paid one time and not get a recurring cut of the sales or a license fee? If I buy a CD I still can't play it the way I want to. It all comes down to ownership. When I buy chairs and tables there is a transfer of ownership. If I buy a CD, I'm not buying the song, I'm buying the media and the license to play for personal use.

If you only play original songs, no licensing is needed - provided that you do not license those songs through BMI/ASCAP/SECAM. If you license those songs through those organizations and perform your own songs at a venue the venue still needs to have a performance license. That's because the artist transfered rights of the songs. Usually that's in their best interests.

BMI/ASCAP both state that they keep 11-13% in overhead and the rest goes to artists / publishers. I'd love to know the breakdown of how much goes to the artists versus the publishers. I'm guessing it's rather lopsided.

It's 50/50. The composer (not the performing artist, unless they are the same person) royalty is the same as the publisher's.

The performing artist gets nothing unless they wrote the music. So when someone covers a famous song, the person who actually wrote the song gets the $$$.

I'm my own publisher (Demitasse Music), so I get everything doled out by ASCAP for my compositions (which means I get double peanuts!).

So does ASCAP/BMI come after Manny for the videos that we post on this blog?

I wouldn't think so since this is a non-commercial site (Manny doesn't sell ads on this site or charge fees to participate)

The professor playing Gershwin I believe falls under fair use.

If you perform at someone's home or apartment club house or something such as this, and the organizer (concert promoter, or whoever is responsible for the event) is charging admission, and the performer is playing licensed music, then technically the venue (not the performer) should obtain a temporary license from the PROs. This is what I recall from my studies of music business.