Quote:
Originally Posted by gduns
Personally I can't understand How if a bar pays the ascap and sesac fees, which are a performing rights group that any music played in that venue karaoke or not can be illegal.  |
Here, Here!! I have my own personal gripes about the music industry as a whole. I pay one $434 fee for the jukebox to JLO just for the privilege of playing the songs that I had to purchase in the first place. I can get my head around this because the jukebox takes quarters and I can see why they want their $.24 cut from that.
All total, after paying the fee and buying new CDs I made a grand total of $118 off that $5000 jukebox this last year. Hell, at least it is a profit.
What my major objection is the fees charged by ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. I am not making one red cent directly from karaoke. I do not charge a cover charge, there is no purchase requirement, nor do I charge to sing. I pay the fee based on seating capacity as if my venue was full 6 nights a week. All this after I have spent well into 6 figures on music.
In my perfect little world it would work like this.
I will continue to pay the $8000 a year in fees to the big three.
They would provide access to their entire catalog for use at my venue.
I won't even request a refund for the $100k I have already spent acquiring the catalog I presently have.
I acquire new music all the time. That is the only way to stay ahead of the market. The bitch about it is, I could do karaoke 4 hours a night, 6 nights a week, for 32 years and still not hear a song twice. But God forbid you don't have Joe Blow's favorite B side of a one hit wonder song in your book!!!