Re: [Harp-L] Plagiarism and cost of licensing for performance




Looking at the website of one of the main US performing rights
organizations, ASCAP, the American Society of Composers and Publishers,
they don't make it easy to get an idea of the cost of licensing of a
single song.

Neither BMI, ASCAP nor SESAC license single songs. The model, established by ASCAP almost 100 years ago, was to license entire song catalogs for its members in one blanket license for public performance.


The problem they were solving was precisely that of the astonishing headaches that would be involved if copyright holders had to license individual songs to individual venues such as broadcast entities, night clubs, restaurants and bars.

The only instance I can recall where one of the performance rights organizations got involved in a single song was for use on the moon, which was not covered in the blanket license. NASA supposedly paid a nice five-figure fee to play Steve Goodman's song City of New Orleans to the astronauts to wake them up whilst on the moon. "Good mornin' America, how are you..."

This may be an urban legend, but I was starting in the music business back when much cooler guys were going to the moon, and that story was a very big buzz.

The reason you'd license a single song goes beyond public performance. You'd license it to use it in a movie or a commercial. The performance license that a TV station pays, for instance, ASCAP for the year covers only performance, not the right to synch copyrighted music into a TV show or commercial. THAT'S where licensing comes in.

When you want to license a single song you contact the copyright holder, normally the song's publisher. They either negotiate the license themselves or have a licensing company do the job for them. Licensing experts know the market value of a copyright in any particular situation.

Licensing can be one of the most lucrative ways for a songwriter to get money off songs. A guy I know who produces R&B compilations told me that he put a few hours into finding the long-vanished composer of a song he was putting in a compilation. The songwriter was delighted to actually get some money for work he had done 50 years ago. That royalty payment she eventually got was low four-figures, but it was found money.

But then some advertising company heard the song on the compilation and licensed it for use in a national TV commercial and the composer got another $125 G's for her golden years. She didn't negotiate that deal, of course. The original publisher, who had never paid her a red cent, had been sold years ago to a company that understood its responsibilities, and they negotiated the deal.

Every few years bars and restaurants scream with outrage about paying the ASCAP and other performance licenses. Sometimes they even try to get an exemption. But when the first lawsuit went to the Supreme Court, one of the justices made the point that bars and restaurants wouldn't play music in their establishments if it didn't help increase their revenues. The guy who wrote the song that is part of the reason paying customers frequent a bar or restaurant deserves payment. That's why ASCAP and the other organizations were founded in the first place.

It's an old story. "You won't get paid to make this record, but it'll help you get live gigs." And then "I can't pay you for the gig you played tonight, but it'll help you sell records." The songwriters put the breaks on that hustle and used their rights as leverage to Get Paid.





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