General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Open mic nights at bar lead to lawsuit from BMI over music, ask for $121,000 [View all]GReedDiamond
(5,311 posts)...and the amount of those checks is proportional to my penetration of the Global Music Market, it seems to me. Yeah, if I was Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga, I'd get significantly larger checks, I realize that.
I defend BMI because I have a catalog of music I have published over the last 30+ years, registered through BMI, so I rely on them to keep track of stuff it would otherwise be impossible for me to do on my own.
The anecdotal accounts of obviously out of line shakedowns over music in the Public Domain is not what BMI is about, or does, to my knowledge. A link to a verifiable account of such racketeering would be helpful. The link in the OP led to a story about venues unwilling to pay what amounts to standard, reasonable fees to BMI for legitimate music licensing, not to dubious accounts of literal shakedowns of clubs, and even musicians, for performing music in the Public Domain.
What would you have me do if I did not have BMI, or ASCAP, or any of the other PROs, to protect my own music from exploitation by greedy bar owners or others who don't want to pay a measly $7.12 a day to provide quality entertainment as a draw to their venue?
I asked this question in an earlier post of mine, and nobody has offered a viable option to a PRO.