Check out this story in the Florida Today
I came across this story and it just reminds me how infuriating this royalties issue is to me. It’s great to see that an organization set up to protect the songwriters is really screwing up other song-writers and artists. This goes back to what I blogged about last month, and how important covers are to establishing bands. Greenfoot is lucky that we have enough original music to be able to keep us afloat, but I know there are going to be times where we’re going to be burned by not being able to play covers.
This article does a really good job highlighting the issues with trying to keep in compliance with these policies, and how companies like ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC seem to go out of their way to make it difficult for smaller venues looking to support live music. They don’t really make any apologies about it either.
I agree with one of the bar owners when he says, “It’s extortion, it’s intimidating. It’s such a scam.”