Friends,
I have been told by both ASCAP and BMI that they will not license (either
piece by piece, or the yearly license that clubs can get) any work for
theatrical use. If anyone has been able to do this recently through
ASCAP or BMI please let me know. We have had some success dealing
with the publishing companies and artists directly, but it is a long road.
The difficulty of this process has caused us to work primarily with local
musicians, which is, of course, a noble and rewarding thing in and of itself.
There are many times, however, when we would love to use a piece of pre-existing
music, and are dissuaded by the hassle and expense. It is too bad
and tempting to just ignore, as many of us fly so far below the radar of
the publishers anyhow, but we should remember that the musicians and composers
are our fellow workers and deserve both the credit and the cash.
For those who have no ethical problems with "borrowing" work from our
musical friends, a cautionary tale: a tiny company in our town managed
to get a reviewer from a major performance magazine to come down to see
their show. Their show became the subject of a very favorable article
which mentioned the company's skillful use of a particular piece of music.
The publisher read about it, fined them and shut down the show. It
was a wake up call for the whole performance community.
Remember too, that music of long-deceased composers is often still
performed by contemporary musicians, and that that performance is still
owned by a publishing company that has more lawyers than you do.
I would love to hear how other companies or individual artists have
dealt with this issue.
respectfully,
Thadd McQuade
www.foolery.org
francis wrote:
The last time I looked into the ASCAP/BMI route,
I was told I needed
to get a year's license from each, if I was using music from each,
and that would total $20,000. Doesn't matter how often you use
it in
that year.
Of course, that was a couple years ago, and they may have come down
in their prices. But I would be careful about who you tell your
plans to, if you're really intent on using published work. It
may be
a lot more than you're willing to spend, and then what do you do once
you've alerted the publishers of your intent?
The idea of original music is best if you want to stay legal.
Or,
you keep it really quiet and hope for the best.
Francis
>Jeff-
>
>Pre- recorded music is (almost always as far as I know) covered under
two
>organizations- the main one is ASCAP (the American Society of Composers
>Athours and Performers)
>
>There are basically two routes to obtaining the legal right to use
>pre-recorded bits of music ( I think recently this has come to include
>electronic sampling and remixing). One is to obtain permission for
each
>piece either from the original artist/publisher/agent or from ASCAP/BMI;
the
>other is to get a license from ASCAP/BMI which will allow you to use
the
>music under certain conditions and restrictions, and covers a wide
range of
>affiliated composers and popular artists. They have a website which
is
>probably a good place to start...www.ascap.com. They also have offices
in
>most major metropolitan areas.
>
>To license or not to license is one of the swords of Damocles for
Theatre
>producers; You would think most artists would be grateful for the
extra
>exposure and new audiences, and you're statistically unlikely to get
caught
>usiing tunes without a license; However, they DO have auditors, and
there is
>a Tip-Line, so it IS possible to get caught, and the consequences
can be
>pretty serious, legally and financially. Since you're working with
a
>'non-profit' ( i presume you mean a charity of some kind ) and one
of the
>possible consequences of being caught without a license is to lose
501
>status, It would probably be best to get the figures and see if it's
>worthwhile to buy the rights - otherwise, It may be cheaper to have
original
>music written ( which is far preferable in SOOOOOO many ways...).
>
>YET ANOTHER OPTION...'classical' music (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart etc)
is
>considered public domain and can be used more or less with impunity...
>
>Good Luck...
>Skip
>
>
>
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: jeff kitchen <danish50@hotmail.com>
>To: <rat-list@whirl-i-gig.com>
>Sent: Friday, June 23, 2000 6:40 AM
>Subject: RAT copyright question???
>
>
>> I am directing a play for a non-profit organization and would like
to use
>a
>> good bit of music in the play... does anyone know the rules governing
>> copywright's, as to who i would need to talk to about rights, cost
and
>that
>> sorta thing. Any money for rights to songs is coming out of my pocket
so
>any
>> advice would be helpful
>>
>>
>> thanks,
>> jeff
>> ________________________________________________________________________
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>
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