Re: Music lic fees for stores

[ASchinella@aol.com]

Excuse my naivete but I have always wondered why restaurants that broadcast
radio stations had to pay the fees in the first place. The stations already
paid the ASCAP fees! It is the same illogic the record companies had when they
tried to go after used CD stores; they made their money the first time the CD
was sold! Do furniture or car companies get a royalty on used sales? Of course
not! 

I remember an ASCAP guy came into a clothing store I worked at in Harvard
Square and demanded we pay an ASCAP fee because we had WFNX on. We laughed him
out of the place. 

At a gig at the Worcester Artist Group (WAG) loft/live space in the early 90s,
the band I was in were warned by the management not to play any covers under
any circumstances since WAG was refusing to pay the ASCAP/BIM fees and didn't
want to get fined. I said "They aren't going to fine you. How will they know?"
But they were adamant about it. I was bummed and told our audience that we
wouldn't be able to do our "destroy all covers" encore that we were semi-
infamous for! 

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End of boston-radio-interest-digest V2 #270
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