Re: Composers should also get paid

[bill bigrig <billbigrig@yahoo.com>]

Howdy,

 i had a freind that opened a brewpub in a small town
back in 98. A week later BMI was there demanding just
under $400 for the year or they would take 'legal
action'. All for a boom box on the back counter.
Rig


--- Bill Fox <billyfox@soundscapes.us> wrote:

> Stefan Tiedje wrote:
> 
> > Per Boysen schrieb:
> >
> >> On the other hand, it may be that the RIAA are
> using too heavy tools 
> >> as their administrative routines when assembling
> the tariffs  for 
> >> using others songs in public (money that are
> distributed back to the 
> >> composers). But be careful not throwing away the
> respect for 
> >> composer's work only because of some brown shirt
> attitude clerks.
> >
> > What they asked for must have been significantly
> more than they paid 
> > for the pianist alone,
> 
> Of course, because it's a year-long license.  But
> then the music in the 
> joint is covered for a year.  Like someone said in a
> previous post, that 
> turns out to be about $20 per week.  I don't know
> the cost of the 
> license so I can't say how accurate that figure is. 
> I'm sure that the 
> cost varies with venue size.  In the US, you'll
> often see a license 
> posted on the wall that declares the legal capacity
> that the local 
> authorities allow in a venue.
> 
> > with the result that the composer gets nothing and
> the pianist lost 
> > his job. My experience with the RIAA/Gema family
> of corporations is, 
> > that they claim they protect the artists, but they
> are only interested 
> > to protect the publishers. There is a reason why
> Stockhausen founded 
> > his own publishing company...
> 
> So he wouldn't have to share his money with a
> publisher.  That has 
> nothing to do with PROs.  True, the PROs pay the
> publishers and 
> publishers typically take half and pay the remainder
> to the composer.  
> But if you don't have a publisher, the you are,
> essentially, 
> self-publishing and the PRO must pay you directly,
> leaving no "middle 
> man" to take half.
> 
> > They look where the big bucks are and don't care
> about the small. I am 
> > still memeber of the Gema but seriously
> considering to quit, because 
> > they do a bad job... (95% of all Gema authorities
> are purely lawers...)
> >
> > If you should get small amounts of money, like
> maybe 5 Euros from a 
> > web radio, the Gema won't pay it to you, because
> its so little, 
> > instead they collect it and distribute it mainly
> to the big guys who 
> > have too much already. I'd love to find a authors
> rights corpoartion 
> > which would allow me to puplish my work under a
> creative commons 
> > license and still let them effectively take care
> about royalties for 
> > commercial use...
> 
> IF a PRO like GEMA isn't meeting the needs of its
> members, then either 
> the members need to band together and force them to
> change from within 
> or they need to leave and find a PRO that *does*
> meet their needs... 
> *if* there is one!
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Bill
> 
> 



      
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