[nreel]

Yes!

The Strong-arm of the Music Industry is now working Indiana pretty hard.

BMI, rooted in New York (guess that should tell you something).

The three "Watchdogs" of the "BROADCAST" industry (BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC) are now charging fees for Karaoke. They claim it is a "Public Performance" of copyrighted material.

On each of their WEBSITES, is an interactive PDF file that allows you to fill out exactly what you will owe per year.

Basically, these contracts cover 4 categories. 1. Live Entertainment. 2. DJ/VJ/CD/DVD and Enhanced CD music, which is KARAOKE. 3. Televisions. and 4. Jukeboxes.

I say that, it is not a "Public Performance" in the original meaning of the "term." (If there is such a definition defined in LAW...that I cannot find anywhere).

The trick is, they do not file "Criminal" lawsuits because, then, they would need to produce the LAW and the "defined" terms and, as a general rule, if the defined TERMS are VAGUE, Justice prevails for the Defendant, usually, due to the Defendant having a presumption of INNOCENCE.

Instead, they file "Civil" lawsuits where Federal Judges have great "Latitude" in siding with the Plaintiffs. The Defendants in CIVIL suits always have UP-HILL battles to Prove their INNOCENCE.

If any were doing a "Public Performance" it would be a LIVE band that is getting paid to perform music other than his or her own.

A club I do 2-nights of Karaoke has made national news for being sued by BMI. To make matters worse, this club has, recently, come under new management who, at their other clubs, only hire LIVE Bands that play their own ORIGINAL music and have been telling BMI right where to stick it...so, no telling how long I will have this GIG.

By the way, you are probably wondering why there are Television Fees. A Club (Commercial for Profit Establishment) might receive copyrighted music from Broadcast signals. For instance, the theme song to Monday night Football is licensed through BMI.

The bottom line: Knowledge is POWER. Do not sit back and lose your GIG by default. There are ways to fight back and convince your CLUB owner to stay with Karaoke. Navigate to their WEB sites and plug-in the numbers to see what the Licensing Fees are.

One way to offset the cost to the Club would be to do a Fundraising for the amount needed to pay for the, highly questionable, FEES. If BMI is the only thorn, then only pay BMI's Licensing Fees until the others start screaming, then, deal with them.

Keep in mind though; only collect, from your Karaoke Customers, the exact amount needed to pay for Karaoke, and NOT for LIVE entertainment, Television, and Jukebox charges.

If BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC have already contacted a Club, the Club will, most likely, have to pay...even if they got rid of Karoke because most Clubs usually have Televisions. In other words, Club management will not get rid of this problem by stopping Karaoke. They are going to have to deal with the issue anyway.

Also, if you, as the KJ, raise this money to pay for the whole year, make sure you get a Contract that locks you in for that year.

Hope this helps,

Norm