[Fmpro] A gentle reminder

[LesHurdle]

http://www.filmmusicmag.com/?p=651


Panelist Ron Gertz, attorney and president of Music Reports, Inc.  
states, “Under the traditional blanket licenses issued by ASCAP and  
BMI, there is no requirement for a broadcaster to keep track or  
report music usage back to the performing rights organizations (PRO’s).

Ever wondered why when in the EU it is mandatory?

Panelist John Marsillo, Assistant Vice President of Performing Rights  
Administration and Research at BMI took exception to any practice of  
advantaging one member group over another. Said Marsillo, “We don’t  
weight music in the same way as ASCAP. We don’t conduct our sampling  
in the same way. Our survey coverage is a lot deeper and our payment  
rates are different. BMI has no desire to advantage one group of  
writers over another-I want to make that very clear.”

Yet no pay for jingles [allegedly].

True enough, many of the policies and distribution practices of ASCAP  
are not widely known, let alone understood by composers, songwriters  
and publishers. Indeed, several industry sources maintain that  
enormous sums of money over the years have been distributed in, shall  
we say, a discretionary manner. Take the practice of diverting an  
estimated 30 million dollars per year from local television revenues  
in order to artificially inflate network performance distribution. Is  
this not a clear example of arbitrarily leveraging one group of  
members to be advantaged over another?

What did I say earlier?


Panelist Pat Collins is the Senior Vice-President of Licensing at  
SESAC and has a unique perspective with regard to ASCAP, having been  
employed there for 23 years prior to his tenure at SESAC. “Since 1917  
and for many decades,” said Collins, “ASCAP served the writer  
community very well. However, having the benefit of retrospect,  
perhaps we can look back and say ASCAP’s follow the dollar method  
didn’t work. Perhaps they didn’t survey enough radio and television  
performances. Perhaps the relationships they made in the ’40s, ’50s  
and ’60s to pay some of their more prestigious writers are coming  
back to haunt them.”


Mr Holden said;

Most amazing of all is the revelation that the broadcasters  
contemplate saving a fortune by paying direct for score music (easily  
90%+ of all music on television) at the same or higher rates than our  
PRO’s pay out to composers. One must understand-there is a lot of  
math between the In and the Out baskets of a PRO. Think long and hard  
on the significance of that last point, because its resolution, I  
believe, will determine the future of the performing right in America.

I urge you  to read the entire article and remember this was around  
10 years ago............ little has changed to benefit composers !

L