This "music-friendly" atmosphere made far more money for artists overall than a few bucks here and there from performance royalties. In the 60s, coffeehouses were huge and there were plenty of people doing covers without fear of retribution. And the PROs can choose to look the other way for cases where it appears the organization in question is promoting music. But I think of it this way: yes, coffeehouses can indeed choose not to feature music. Of course, this brings up the idea of thresholds etc. But if Bobby Blurfle does a song of mine in front of 20 people in a coffeehouse in Butte, Montana, I'd feel it was more like publicity. If, say, Dave Matthews did one of my songs at Madison Square Garden, you bet I'd want a piece of the action. However, I also recognize the value of promotion. It's certainly an important part of my income stream.
I of course believe that artists should be paid for their work. Still, it does cut down on the number of horrible "Free Bird" and "Dust in the Wind" covers one has to hear, so that can't be all bad. But I'm not convinced that the money always gets to the right people - by a stretch.Īnd some of these guys act more like protection racket thugs - threatening tiny, struggling coffee shops with four or five people watching a flustered newb with threats of putting them out of business with statutory, per-song penalties - often seriously stretching the likely truth in the service of their intimidation and coercion tactics. As a songwriter, I'm committed to the idea that songwriters should be paid. Still, they've really leaned on her at times.įWIW, I have mixed feelings. You don't get put on the bill without having it pointed out in no uncertain terms that covers are not permitted.
She's also stopped a couple of performances when the artist defied her or said they didn't actually know any originals. And she will pull an artist aside who tries to sneak in covers and warn them that they won't be invited back if they don't stay original. She does pay the recorded music licenses though she's very by the book. These days, after 20 years in biz, she just laughs at them.
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But the live performance license was nasty and she already had a (mostly well observed) no-covers rule in place so she toughed it out. They leaned really hard on the coffee shop propietor. It was the early 90s, IIRC, and I think the fact that I had lead sheets printed (just by my own computer/printer, of course) confused the poor dimwitted slob. (This was before I signed up with that PRO.) You're doing what you love, right?Īn ASCAP song cop accused me of doing one or more covers on a night I - for sure - only sang my originals. And if the artists got paid a fair wage for their work, they (not the clubs) could afford to pay for the songs written by others that they use in their work - just as a carpenter pays for the wood he uses when he builds a house. If the shops paid the artists a fair price for their evening's work, then they could make money playing coffee houses without waiting for that ASCAP check. Unless there's a big coffee house hit that someone sings every night, the author and publisher royalties from coffee houses is going to be trivial, and even with big coffee house hits, they're short lived. There are a lot more small time artists than there are coffee houses to pay the license fee.
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So if they claim it's no big deal for these venues to shell out $400 a year, then it's no big deal to send a registered ASCAP member who doesn't crack the the top 40 charts a few hundred bucks a year, right?
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