Re: Pay royalties for own music on own website?

[Travis Hartnett <travishartnett@gmail.com>]

I remember a Pete Townshend interview a few years back where he talked about having to pay $20k per Who show to perform his own tunes, since the Who was hiring the venue for each evening or some similar arrangement.  And since ASCAP/BMI don't use a 1-to-1 pay out ratio (i.e. the amount you're paid each year is determined by "estimating" and "polling" the marketplace, not by an actual count of how many of your songs have been played how many times to how many people), he said he paid his performance royalty organization much more then he received back that year.  Bear in mind that this example pertains to live performance royalties for that year, not airplay royalties.

TH

On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 6:44 AM, Andrew Koenig <ark@acm.org> wrote:

For live performance, the situation is even more interesting.  My
understanding is that in the USA, a live performer has the right to play
anything, and it is the person who operates the venue who is on the hook for
royalties or license fees.  Which means that if you are running a venue, and
you present a performer who does work covered by ASCAP, you have to pay for
an ASCAP license regardless of whose work the performer presents.