JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Industry Message Forum ASCAP fees for small venues

Doug,

Aside from the fact that you're wrong, you are missing the entire point of the discussion so let's get it back on track.

1. The fees are mandatory and backed by law. If a venue using live music isn't paying it, they are already violating the law. The PRO's are simply 3 collection services for fees that must be paid by government mandate. If they haven't gotten around to collecting it in the past, it doesn't mean it isn't owed.

2. The PRO's DO have proof before they go to court. And they provide it and they ALWAYS win. 100% of the time they win in court. What is it about that you don't understand? They have proof. You don't win 100% of the time without proof. You couldn't bribe enough juries to do it. If at ANY time someone performs a single song in the venue that is in a particular PRO catalog, the argument is over and they owe the fee.

3. The laws that allow venues to use music for blanket rates are GOOD for the venus. If you had to individually negotiate a license for each and every song 1 at a time, it would cost 100 times as much and many writers wouldn't grant permission in the first place.

4. If the fee breaks down to less than 3 dollars a day, all you need to do to pay that fee is bring in an extra 3 dollars of Profit to cover it. If my cost of running a venue is 200 dollars a day and I normally bring in 600 dollars of wine bottle sales with a 50% markup, I have 100 dollars of profit for the day. If 1 person buys 1 extra "glass" of wine for 5 dollars (typically a 60% markup or more), my sales go up to $605 dollars and my daily cost goes up to 202 dollars (the extra 2 dollars being the cost of the wine) and my profit goes up to 103 dollars (the extra 3 dollars of profit coming from the glass of wine). That's a simple fact no matter how much you don't want it to be true. If a venue isn't producing 3 dollars of extra profit a day with live music, then they shouldn't USE live music. It's not a good business decision in the first place. OR, they aren't hiring the right musicians who can keep people in their seats longer and buying more food and drinks.

Whine all you want, but you're on the losing side legally, morally and logically.

Brian