OT: ASCAP/BMI (was Re: Fripp & Eno 1973 / BBC / Peel /RIAA)

[Mech <mech@m3ch.net>]

At 12:35 PM -0700 7/9/07, Rev Fever wrote:
>On Jul 9, 2007, at 11:43 AM, Travis Hartnett wrote:
>>
>>Actually that probably wasn't the RIAA, but either BMI or ASCAP.
>>
>>The scenario you described is how publishing works in America.  It
>>costs about a thousand dollars a year for an ASCAP or BMI license.
>>The restaurant was just too cheap to pay twenty bucks a week.
>
>It could have been either BMI or ASCAP, and it is likely that you are 
>correct.
>This occurred over 20  years ago at least,  so I could forgotten a 
>detail like that.
>
>And, regardless of whoever it did the "enforcement",  it was still a 
>thuggish maneuver.
>In the case of the restaurant and the piano player, it was like 
>going after a flea with a SLEDGEHAMMER.
>
>I would not try to defend these BMI or ASCAP jerks for behavior such as 
>that.

Travis is most likely correct in that it was probably BMI or ASCAP.

However, if you're talking 20 years back, I used to hear stories 
regarding how corrupt the ASCAP reps were (at least around Chicago). 
It was routine to hear of those reps "trading" the royalty fees they 
were supposed to be collecting for an open bar tab, for instance, or 
the phone number of a pretty bartender.  Or one rep would come in to 
"collect" an establishment's fees only a few days after another rep 
had stopped in.  It was pretty much an open secret that about half 
the royalty fees picked up went straight into the pockets of the 
ASCAP reps themselves.

I don't know if they ever cleaned up their act.  I haven't really 
been inside that scene (bar owners and employees) for over a decade 
now.

So, you may not be entirely correct in railing against the system 
itself (aside from the fact that those organizations didn't enforce 
fair standards and practices).  Instead, you might be looking at an 
instance of common criminal behavior.

        --m.
-- 
_____
"I want to keep you alive so there is always the possibility of 
murder... later"