[BC] ASCAP and BMI and Rights

[WFIFeng@aol.com]

In a message dated 02/01/2006 9:09:18 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
richwood at pobox.com writes:

> Two things: you sound like you have a blanket license. A station that 
>  does mostly Talk should have a per play license. If you use canned 
>  religion and don't have a log of the music they've used, you're sunk.

Nope, it's per-program, always has been, and it's still expensive, 
considering the music brings in probably less revenue than it's costing in fees, thus 
negative cash-flow. That's the main reason we have so little music in the first 
place! It's a financial liability.

>  I've also talked to many artists. It's mostly composers and musicians 
>  who have a hard time getting paid.That still doesn't excuse the theft 
>  of the material.

I wasn't trying to condone the theft of anything. I was talking about the 
fee$ that stations pay, vs the pittance some of the rightful recipients get, 
while the Music Mafia throws big expensive parties every year (or more often) and 
pays expensive lawyers & goons to harrass small businesses with most of that 
money.

>  In the past, logging songs was a pain.

Like Chinese water torture. I used to have to fill-out those stupid logs all 
the time... for years. Absolutely *loathed* it. Some of the proceedures have 
changed and made that part of the burden lighter, but the bills still keep 
climbing.

> With today's digital systems 
>  that output an ASCII text file for RDS, Streaming, traffic and IBUZ 
>  you could report every song you played to ensure the performers got 
>  paid. 

That is a significant benefit to today's technology. Now, if only we could 
just get rid of the Music Mafia's goons, lawyers, & their big expensive parties, 
and disburse those funds directly to the rightful recipients, we'd be all 
set. Some fully computerized central clearing-house would be able to handle the 
digital data from the stations, collect the funds, then disburse them, with 
minimal overhead. Stop harrassing local shops, and fire all the lawyers... the 
composers would actually see increases in their incomes.

>  Andy Economos of RCS grabbed me at a convention some years ago to 
>  show me a logger they were working on. Song hooks were in a database 
>  and a radio fed the computer. What you played was compared with the 
>  database and the machine spit out every song you played. It's a very 
>  simple way to capture your competition's playlist without ever 
>  listening to them.

Someone posted a link to a WEBsite that is already doing this- you can log 
into it, and see exactly what any given station is playing. Amazing stuff. 
Something like this should be making the Music Mafia very nervous for their 
future... they may no longer be necessary. (Awwww...) The computers & the accountants 
will take it from here, with the composers being the biggest beneficiaries. 
They are, after all, the ones we're interested in helping, right? Not the 
goons, lawyers & hotshot party-goers.

Willie...