Who Has To Pay ASCAP, BMI, SABAM, GEMA... Royalties For Playing Music?

[pepper1dancer]

I remember a few years ago in a town not far away where a DJ was arrested at the club for playing some Jams from Prince and a few other artist and he was charged for not reporting it to whoever is to know for payment. Question #1. Does a club have to pay royalties to the songwriter everytime you spin a record? #2 How does radio pay payment to the record companies? Do they show how many times they play a certain song and do some songs cost more than others? Is it pennies on the dollar? Very curious on this.

[Bernie]

The answer to your questions is basically, yes. DJs, dance studios, radio stations and anyone who plays music for public use must pay a royalty. I used to do this when I had the audio samples on DiscoMusic.com years ago and it required writing down every song's artist and title and other info like how many plays... One paid a set percentage and then a percentage of the business profits... on top of that. It was expensive and the absurd amount of record keeping was extremely time consuming. Oh, did I mention you had to do this for at least two, possibly three different music organizations?!

[OldskoolDJ]

Question #1. Does a club have to pay royalties to the songwriter everytime you spin a record? #2 How does radio pay payment to the record companies? Do they show how many times they play a certain song and do some songs cost more than others? Is it pennies on the dollar? Very curious on this.

Public venues, whether it be a club or the local shopping mall, pay for licenses from ASCAP, BMI and possibly one other organization, can't remember the initials.The DJ is not required to pay anything, whether he's a club or mobile DJ.Radio stations must keep detailed logs whenever licensed music is played. They pay a rate based on their market and size, the detailed logs are for the licensing organization to pay royalties to the artists.

Unless licensing requirements I am unaware of have changed, I never kept detailed logs as a club or mobile DJ.

[Videoskooter]

I pay a fixed sum to SABAM because I play music in public. And I'm inspected a few times a year, where I have to prove that I actually own the CD's that are ripped on my PC-sound system.

When I had my stations we had to list every song we played and then we got the bill.

Bernie, I missed it BITD, did you host complete tracks on the site or just small parts?

[tony98]

In the U.K. clubs & bars pay a music licence it depends on the size of the venue as to how much you pay. I can never remember what it's actually called it's PRS or PPl.

[DISCODISK]

heres how it works in the u.k, i know a bit about it as its part of my job, like video says all radio stations t.v stations submit daily, everybody that plays music to the public has to pay an annual fee, that would even include a small cafe thats playing a radio,venues are also visited, the computer chooses, theres 3 types of visit, live, d.j and general general could mean a shop supermarket or golf club,so for example it was a d.j visit and diana ross walked in and started singing dobeddoo'ndoobe it wouldnt count just what the d.j plays,[likewise on a live visit if somebody played a record it wouldnt count as its not live] so if the d.j played rat rappin it would be assumed it was also being played in london liverpool etc and whats being played in london on the same night would be assumed to being playing here,if said visit was tomorrow what the venue plays tonight or wednesday wouldnt be recorded.
nobody gets arrested and a d.j can play whatever he likes and he dosnt have to cooperate neither does the establishment although they have consented to the visit most are very cooperative and kind espcially club managers [you could be drunk free every night, but i dont drink:icon_cry::icon_lol:]
i only met one nasty guy who flipped out on me and ordered me to leave them premises but no probs as the paycheck is the same.
its a friendly approach unlike years gone by when these guys turned up unnanounced i remember them coming to a northern soul club in the early 70s somebody would shout 'theyre in the car park' bootlegs and emidisk would be flying everywhere its surprising we have heads left.
this organisation gets flack in the u.k some people think they dont know what northern soul or funk is and that robbie williams gets all the cash which is just not true. in the u.k in 2005 there were 6,798 visits and 246,395 items were recorded, top 3 tracks were call on me eric prydz, crazy in love beyonce and out of touch hall and oats, though where i live that didnt follow it was more like the bee gees night fever and stayin alive.
2005 top three live were dance the night away the mavericks amorillo tony christie and brown eyed girl van morrison that would be about right for me too:icon_redface:

[DISCODISK]

also to add if a d.j plays a record 5 times it counts 5 times all parts of a mix count and royalties are paid from licence fees to there is nothing to pay from the venue on the night or the d.j

[canadiantire]

....heres how it works in the u.k, i know a bit about it as its part of my job, like video says all radio stations t.v stations submit daily, everybody that plays music to the public has to pay an annual fee, that would even include a small cafe thats playing a radio,venues are also visited, the computer chooses...

This thread reminds me that I was once told by a D.J. that montages (because of the nature of the short duration of their excerpts) are not subjected to royalty fees.

Based on your comment I realize that this D.J. related me nothing but an outrageous urban legend…

[QUINNY]

so if the d.j played rat rappin it would be assumed......

Or, the Joe 90 Theme, like they did on the Northern Soul scene:icon_mrgreen::icon_mrgreen:.

So, what exactly is your job DD and how did you get it? Poacher turned gamekeeper????

[buckaroo]

This thread reminds me that I was once told by a D.J. that montages (because of the nature of the short duration of their excerpts) are not subjected to royalty fees.

Based on your comment I realize that this D.J. related me nothing but an outrageous urban legend…

In the UK for example, it doesn't matter how long (30 seconds or 1 minute) a radio station plays a record. They'd still have to pay PRS. i think this also applies to websites, but I've seen quite a few that have been up for years, that I don't think are paying s**t. :icon_lol:

[Mixmachine]

As far as I know Disco Clubs in America had to pay a flat fee based on a Formula that took into account , club capacity, hours/days of operations, Live shows, etc, I don't think anyone kept track of what songs were played ( no one asked me to ever) much less how many times or what label.:icon_rolleyes:

I believe BMI was/is the main enforcer, while smaller ASCAP charging a fixed percentage of what ever BMI charged.

Any Restaurant, Café, Banquet Hall or what have you that plays any music in public also pays, including any Business that plays music through their intercom system or music on hold.(they used to play regular Radio, Cassettes, later CDs)

To avoid the high cost most corporate Biz in the past used a service that provided music for a monthly fee (cheaper), the best known local company was named Musak, this music is mainly known as "elevator music" that as you know are basically hit records done instrumentally, I believe they pay less royalties because they are not using the original song/performer.

I think today most companies are using digital music channels from 'Satellite TV' service for intercom and voice applications like 'music on hold" etc, I’m not sure, but this way they don't pay directly to BMI/ASCAP and let the Satellite company worry about that.

As far as DJs, locally they never had to pay any fees, as spinning music in a club was covered under the Club's deal, but DJs selling cassettes was a different matter, it was always known to be illegal, but no one enforced this rules, and it was done every where; some club’s management prohibited cassette sales though, in which case Djs found other ways to deliver the cassettes later on.

I supposed doing a private mobile gig in a private home would required payment, but no one bothered enforcing that either, I knew friends that ran legally registered mobile Biz and advertised in local public publication, if they were approached for payments, I really don’t know, but given the low prices they charged, I don’t think so.

[DISCODISK]

Or, the Joe 90 Theme, like they did on the Northern Soul scene:icon_mrgreen::icon_mrgreen:.

So, what exactly is your job DD and how did you get it? Poacher turned gamekeeper????

no quinny never ever heard that in a club in my life, must have gone to the wrong places:icon_sad:
you want a job like that quinny? though its mostly, interesting and fun, it can be very boring, i only know where im going,i have no idea what time i will finish sometimes i think i will be a couple of hours and it turns out to be 5 hours [but in another way that is the best as i need to cross that magical midnight hour $$ ] and it can be difficult like last year i went to a restaurant it turned out to be chinese, the guy said all the music is chinese so i said thats o.k can i just see the c.d cases and he said no they were all downloaded from my p.c:icon_mrgreen:

[Videoskooter]

I would really appreciate if the original discussion would continue now and that's

Who Has To Pay ASCAP, BMI, SABAM, GEMA... Royalties For Playing Music?

Use the PM function for personal battles, not the board! Thanx!