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Pay TO play?

Sportsword

Sportsword

This is a very interesting question I have been wanting to ask, and this looks like the perfect place to ask it since there are so many people here to learn from. This issue involves whether radio stations are supposed to be paying music services for playing their songs.

Now before we go any further, I admit I don't know all the details, which is why I am asking you, but it was in issue that had been bugging me for years. I hope I can get an answer here. So let me set this up:

When I first got in radio at WWCU, I spent 3 and a half years learning as much about radio as I could. My major was RTV so I spent a huge amount of time in radio. From radio announcer to Sports Director and other things, I learned a ton about radio. We always got promotional material from record labels and it just seemed like that was the way it works. They want play, they send free...I say again... FREE music so the stations could push it.

When I graduated and worked for a station in Goldsboro, it kinda worked the same way, but I wasn't as involved in the station as I was in college. I actually ended up leaving the station because it was costing me more to go back and forth, and the owner was cheap (pardon me while I laugh, that is kinda like several other local radio stations).

I then went to WVOT the Beach and Shag station for awhile and had more fun there, and learned more about how the business of radio works. This was stuff I didn't learn in college, but much of it was based off fundamentals. I worked there for a bit, then left radio for a bit, and came back later, and found that WVOT was now run by a church. I was hired to help them out, and it was THEN that I saw something I had not seen before.

They were paying some music information business based on the songs they were playing.

I didn't understand that. Why was the radio station PAYING for the songs they play? I had never heard that before, and I asked the General Manager about that. He said that is what they was supposed to do, but it didn't make sense to me. Record labels send music free to radio stations so they can get free promotion, why then must radio stations pay for playing the songs that were originally sent free?

The way I understood it, we had to, on a certain time of the year, write down EVERY song we play on shift, for the duration I think of a week. After that, the GM sends the list in and I think BMI or some representive decides how much the station would have to pay. It wasn't like $3 a song or anything like that, more like I think 5 cents per song depending on if those artists, or to be more precise, the writers of those songs, were members of BMI or some other music industry.

I don't know how much it came out to be,but I assume the station paid it, and I was stumped as to why the station was being charged for that. It just seemed like the people working there assumed that was the way it was.

Now, I understand in part the idea that when it comes to royalties, it is the author of the song that should be paid, but I was also under the understanding that when a record label sends you free music, it is in promotion to their artists.

For example, if I had a song (yeah, right) and I was with a record label, they might send two or three promotional copies to a radio station, in hopes that they would play my song. It's a gamble because they station does not have to, but if they did, then it would be possible that the record label could make some sales off that transaction.

If a radio station serving 10,000 people plays a song, even if a half of one percent like it enough to buy that CD, that means 50 people buying that particular CD...which would be worth the free promotional CD the record label sent.

Now, if that is true, then the idea is that there is a free exchange of services and products...a barter. The record label gets free airplay, the station gets free music. So why then does the station have to turn around and pay BMI or services like that for products they are promoting free of charge?

I have talked to some people on this, and some say they have never heard of that before, some say that yes, you have to pay royalties. It's not like when a movie uses a song and must pay royalties, or if an artist samples from another artist, radio stations play those songs for promotional use (in theory). But I suppose that because stations DO make money off the music they play (via spots and time) then technically they are making money off those artists, and thus should pay some form of royalties.

So I just don't know. What is the reasoning on this?
 
i believe it's called a "public performance clearance" fee. the radio station is using a public performance of the music to conduct business that benefits them. therefore, they have to pay a clearance fee to the company that licenses the music for public performance, which in turn pays what is traditionally known as a royalty. the two entities who license music (that i am familiar with) are BMI and ASCAP. google them to learn more about them...



or i could be wrong
 
It has to do with the "public performance" of the music. Radio stations make money by playing music, therefore the composer (or owner) of the music deserves to be paid his royalty for that performance. Therefore, all radio stations should have a license for the public performance of the music they play.

There are basically three organizations that license music: ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. A station that does not have a license, is subject to civil action and payment of back royalties for the use of the music.

There are two types of licenses for radio: 1) Blanket, and 2) Per Program.

The Blanket license allows a station for a flat fee to play as much of the licensed music as they desire (not restricted to any format or type of music as long as it is licensed).

Per Program licenses allow stations for a lower flat fee to play music in a non-featured way (bumpers, background, etc). Any featured play of a song costs extra, so if a station plays a "hymn of the day", or plays "name that tune" on the morning show, they have to declare the quarter hour and pay an extra fee. If you play one song in the quarter hour, you might as well play four. Once the quarter hour is declared, you pay the same amount no matter how much licensed music you play.

It is kinda like having an unlimited text message plan vs a per message plan on your cell phone.

The amount of the fee is based on the station's annual revenue from a previous year, however most of the group operators have a negotiated deal for ALL of their stations. Smaller groups may deal on a station by station basis with the licensing companies.

The same sort licensing requirements also apply to bars, juke boxes, concert venues, and even business with music piped through their sound systems - ANY public performance.
 
"BMI Logging". UGH! Two words, or rather, 3 letters and one word that would strike as much dread and fear in a person as "Exam Week" did in Jr. High and High School, or as much as "Semester Finals" did in college. Used to have to do it for 2 weeks(at least our GM made us do it for two weeks). And, not to sound like Gramps or anything("Back in my day, sonny, ...), but with no computers or music scheduling software, back then you had to do it by hand, including background music on commercials. Woe unto the parttimer who had to work for a fulltimer the week before Christmas and saw "BMI Logging-Starting December 21" on their inter-office memo. Those things would make everyone so uptight. Now you only have to do it a fraction of that time and with the relaxing of the requirements over the years and the advent of computers, it's snap...but I still get a brief initial phantom wave of dread wash over me whenever the subject of "BMI Logging" comes up. BRRRRRRrrrrrr!.
 
Oh, how I hated those days!!! Of course, software like Selector made that one easy. Per program stations have to file a report one week a quarter - but you can do it on-line.
 
XTalker said:
Oh, how I hated those days!!! Of course, software like Selector made that one easy. Per program stations have to file a report one week a quarter - but you can do it on-line.
Click to expand...

Freaking, no good, newbie upstarts these days...they get all the breaks. lol.
 
Please don't take offense but what do they teach you when you major in RTV? Are there any classes in broadcast management, or do they just concentrate on you, the graduate, looking good on camera? I would hope someone with a degree in Radio-TV, Communications, or whatever they're calling it these days would have some understanding about the concept of music licensing after paying big bucks to an institute of higher learning to learn all about broadcasting. X-talker's response probably has more detail than most people hear in 4 years from the high minded professors at the local colleges.
 
The problem with degree programs in broadcasting/communications, is the industry changes faster than the education system can keep up with it. The schools that encourage semester-long internships have a better chance of turning out someone who can get a job in radio.

My advice to young people looking at broadcasting as a career has always been - go to college, get a degree that will help you get a job in some other industry. Take computer classes, marketing classes, business course, p - learn all aspects of business in general. Take an extra class or two in the communications department, and maybe a political science and psychology.

Meanwhile, get a part time job at a COMMERCIAL radio station.

If you have a degree in Public Relations, Marketing, Business Administration - just name a degree of general nature - you can find a decent job in most any field of business.

If you want to learn about music licensing, negotiating with syndicators, how to deal with engineers and sales people, call me. I will start an on-line school.
 
XTalker said:
If you want to learn about music licensing, negotiating with syndicators, how to deal with engineers and sales people, call me. I will start an on-line school.
Click to expand...

Opportunist. lol.

I agree with you part and parcel regarding broadcast degree programs, but I have to say, in response to an earlier post, it doesn't surprise me at all that schools with broadcast journalism degree programs don't cover music licensing. I've never heard of it being covered at all...except in the School of Hard Knocks, right up there with how to deal with record reps, adding music, determining music rotations and the like.
 
I always had positive experiences with students from UNC-G, NC A&T, and Winston-Salem State.

The WSSU program is run by a guy who actually worked in a radio station when he was working on his Doctorate.

A&T had a good intern program, however, I believe the person who ran it is now at Elon. Their program also required each student to conduct "a business lunch" meeting with someone from the industry, they did mock job interviews, and they had local broadcasters as guest speakers to classes.
 
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