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Music Industry Shaking Down Coffee Shops
realjd writes with news out of Florida that music licensing companies are now hitting small bars and coffee shops that offer live music, even if only occasionally and even if the musicians don't get paid. One coffee-shop owner told musicians they can only perform their own songs from now on. "A restaurant owner who doesn't even offer live music was approached for payment for having the TV on while the Monday Night Football theme played. And if the owners pay up to one licensing company, all of the others start harassing them, calling four times a day, demanding payment too. It sounds like they don't even check whether any copyright violations occurred, they're just sending bills to any business that may or may not have live music."
Damn, now I'm afraid to even hum a tune in Starbucks!
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
BTW, what's the ASCAP fee for your sig?
:-)
Just curious
These assholes need to be put against a wall and shot.
Make that "in the kneecaps" and I'll buy it.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Man, this is so harshly on target. Beatles played all old school rock'n'roll songs in Hamburg and for MONEY. My pick no one bothered to collect money from them then.
Right. And history will correctly judge The Beatles not as brilliant songwriters but as the cold-blooded criminals that they were.