Re: OT: Pay royalties for own music on own website?

[Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com>]

On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 2:28 PM, Buzap Buzap <buzap@gmx.net> wrote:
> I just had a discussion with a friend of mine. He is registered with the 
>German GEMA (like ASCAP/BMI in Germany) and said that he is not allowed 
>to present his own music on his own web site without paying royalties!!
>
> I found this idea quite bizarre and checked a few web pages. Quite 
>confusing: some say, you are allowed to stream but no download - then 
>again, this rule just goes to 31.Dec07. Others suggest that in a band, 
>one person should be outside of Gema etc.
>
> So, I'm confused. Do you have the same regulation in US? Do you really 
>have to pay royalties for your own music on your own web page 
>(pathetic!)? In Germany/Europe? What about music not registered with 
>GEMA/ASCAP? What about lyrics/song transcriptions?
>
> Looking forward to your hints :)

Your friend might be correct. You better call GEMA/ASCAP to get
correct information on this. Different countries have different
legislation regarding "non material" rights, as the different kinds of
rights to music are. And then, different associations handle these
rights differently.

A decade ago, here in Sweden, you had to pay for mechanical rights
license to put your own music on you own web site, even though there
is a certain regulation regarding CD printing that you don't have to
pay "to yourself" if printing less than 1000 copies. But these days
you can inform them (STIM, the Scandinavian equivalents to GEMA) and
not have to pay "to yourself" when putting your own music on your own
web site.

I've been a member of STIM here since -86 and on some few occasions
found that very good for me. Especially one time when I was working as
a hired studio guitarist for an album and one song suddenly became a
hit and made the album a gold seller (just out of nowhere) and another
time when I was performing looping at an art exhibition and a national
TV broadcast team suddenly showed up and decided to stand in front of
me to do an interview with some of the painters (my music was heard on
TV and rendered me quite a lot of money, thanks to STIM. As a non
member I would not have gotten much).

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.boysen.se
www.perboysen.com