legalize me up captain!

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ACUA
Posts: 552
Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2016 6:21 pm
Location: Tucson Arizona

legalize me up captain!

#1 Post by ACUA »

hello to anyone who ventures into this thread. I appreciate the support and desire you have to help me. I have been using this forum for over six months now with great success. I have reread much of the material posted for my sake as well as the other highly useful material here. I was able to use a lot of what I learned here or had solidified here to get a part job sound engineering (dream come true). I have been building my own personal PA rig for dj/music entertainment business purposes and am up to 2 tuba45 horns with 2 more in the works. my client pool is growing steadily and i am really happy about it. thank you for the support and the awesome speaker designs.

at this point i have need to legitimize and legalize.
I am working out the business license part but struggle to fully understand the music rights laws and how to conform to the PROs. Before I went any farther on my own I wanted to come here for advice. I predict some of you veterans will have seen and done it all and may just be willing to help a newbie out so as to do it cleanly. I understand that most venues will have rights paid already for music/entertainment but what about the events i do outside an existing covered venue. it becomes my responsibility to adhere to the copy right laws yes. do i need to register with all three organizations? What else am i missing? I appreciate your input and help.
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Grant Bunter
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Re: legalize me up captain!

#2 Post by Grant Bunter »

Nice post. I'm glad you're enjoying the forum and help.

Might sound odd coming from an Aussie, but there is plenty of info on the net.
Business licence, yep.
Liability insurance, get some.

As far as I could work out, permission/licencing from the PRO's is required in the situation where you are the promoter and provider.

If you are the provider only, the promoter is (or should be) liable for the PRO's licencing.
So if you consider that the organiser of the wedding (for example) is the promoter, and not in a typical venue which already has a licence, you could inform them they will need to get the licence.

In this situation this should be in your contract. Yes, you need contract(s).

If you're struggling with dealing with, or understanding the PRO's and their requirements, talk to them.

One post I saw while searching suggested that inspection for licencing is largely uncommon.
To assess the risk to you should you choose to go that way, check out the PRO's individual penalties, and make a decision based on that...
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T39's: 4 x 20" KL3010LF , 2 x 28" 3012LF.
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Bill Fitzmaurice
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Re: legalize me up captain!

#3 Post by Bill Fitzmaurice »

By and large the responsibility for BMI/ASACP lies with the person hosting the event, not the DJ or band providing the music. It's just like a radio station. The station pays the royalties, not the on-air DJ.

madmallard
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Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: legalize me up captain!

#4 Post by madmallard »

Bill Fitzmaurice wrote:By and large the responsibility for BMI/ASACP lies with the person hosting the event, not the DJ or band providing the music. It's just like a radio station. The station pays the royalties, not the on-air DJ.
this is accurate to my knowledge too. Sometimes this is the operator of the venue, sometimes its an entertainment booking firm.

tho if I remember, the venue operator can be dragged into it if a problem arises.

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DJPhatman
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Re: legalize me up captain!

#5 Post by DJPhatman »

Applicable to the USA: Years ago, when my entertainment business was flourishing, I inquired about obtaining licensing, and posted the return communication on this forum. To para-phrase the response, because I was playing for "small" gatherings, I did not need any kind of license or permission. If I were doing stadium crowds, then it would be a concern, but as stated earlier, this is on the promoter and the venue. Almost all higher capacity venues already have licensing, and pay a percentage of the door as royalties. For a bar/pub/restaurant, it's on the venue owner. If you are an "artist" (band, performance DJ, not playing the actual, original music) playing out, you are safe, as the music you play is your own, your IP, if you will.
I know money often seals the deal, but seriously, quality is an investment, not an expense... Grant Bunter
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dswpro
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Re: legalize me up captain!

#6 Post by dswpro »

I believe it changes from the USA to Europe, not sure about Australia but worth looking into.
In the USA the venue (brick and mortar) is who ASCAP and BMI seeks licence fees from, usually based upon the seating capacity and negotiated as a percentage of annual gross revenues. A blanket license allows the venue to host live music with cover bands and (I believe) most over the air radio and television broadcasts. (Pay Per View is separate) The exception is a juke box where the owner of the box is sought to pay royalties, and if that's the only music device in the place (including radios and TV) the venue pays nothing.

In Europe the copying artist is sought after and asked to keep track of what songs are played and then to pay royalties based upon the list of songs and seating capacity of each venue. Not sure which method is used down under.

Ironically, in the US, this is why "tribute" bands have been able to play large venues while "Cover" bands are never booked into a large venue. The large venues in the US only book original artists so no royalties are due the licensing companies. Tribute bands, however play such a narrow portion of the licensing company's material, they cannot claim a broad breach or large damages. This, and often tribute bands seek a license form the artist themselves, so they are safe to book in even the largest venues. If you are a Genesis fan and ever get the chance to see Musical Box they are awesome and use the original Genesis props and material with permission from the original artists, and play large theaters.

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