Music fees

[PHIL Z]

Question ,If Frankie Day's Keep our oldies alive is Non profit but he is on a For Profit radio station. Does he or the Radio station Pay the Music fee's?. Big Ray, Caveman and Suzy Q are also on 770 Do They Pay the Fees?

 

[VelvetJonesLives]

Question ,If Frankie Day's Keep our oldies alive is Non profit but he is on a For Profit radio station. Does he or the Radio station Pay the Music fee's?. Big Ray, Caveman and Suzy Q are also on 770 Do They Pay the Fees?

If I remember correctly from my ASCAP class, non-profits and educational stations did not have to pay licensing fees. That was 12 years ago though. I would assume that is still the case, but given the behavior of some of these organizations in the past decade I wouldn't be surprised if they did start asking for some fees. If the performance tax is passes music-based commercial radio is dead.

 

[VelvetJonesLives]

Question ,If Frankie Day's Keep our oldies alive is Non profit but he is on a For Profit radio station. Does he or the Radio station Pay the Music fee's?. Big Ray, Caveman and Suzy Q are also on 770 Do They Pay the Fees?

If I remember correctly from my ASCAP class, non-profits and educational stations did not have to pay licensing fees. That was 12 years ago though. I would assume that is still the case, but given the behavior of some of these organizations in the past decade I wouldn't be surprised if they did start asking for some fees. If the performance tax is passes music-based commercial radio is dead.

I recant this last statement. Apparently they do charge both non-profits and educational stations. Right after I wrote this I remember my dad complaining a couple of years ago about some ASCAP lawyer showing up at their church and demanding payment for "performance of copyrighted materials". The church eventually gave in and paid them a few hundred dollars to go away. Did a quick search and apparently this is a growing problem. As I said originally, I didn't think they charged, but apparently that was just out of the goodness of their heart. Now that times are tough they apparently even targeted girl scout troops for singing around the camp fire.

 

[wrsg915fm]

If I remember correctly from my ASCAP class, non-profits and educational stations did not have to pay licensing fees.

WRSG radio (licensed to the Tyler County, West Virginia Board of Education) pays fees to all three.

 

[dB]

If I remember correctly from my ASCAP class, non-profits and educational stations did not have to pay licensing fees.

According to Wikipedia, there's no exception for non-profit/educational stations or performances (although the rate might be different than that of commercial stations). It does appear, however, that the Girl Scouts have been spared. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_rights_organisation)

PROs (Performance Rights Organizations) have been criticized for charging non-profit organizations for their use of copyrighted music in situations where the non-profit organization was not earning money from the use. ASCAP, for example, was eventually forced in the face of public opinion to abandon its attempts to charge the Girl Scouts of the USA for singing campfire songs. ASCAP's and SESAC's policy of charging non-commercial educational (NCE) radio stations for playing copyrighted music has also been criticised, especially by college radio stations across the U.S., which rely entirely on student and listener support for funding and have difficulty affording the extra fees.

 

[PT]

Per the Constitution "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." since 1790 we've gone from a 14 year term to 95/120 years or life plus 70 years. I don't think this is what the founders meant by "limited"