Ed -

The information in my post is based on the agreements and information currently available on the PRO sites. Look again and you will find BMI considers performances (outside of large scale concerts) to be "Unmonitored" and chooses an "appropriate surrogate such as radio and television broadcasts".

The posts from down under and Belgium also lead me to wonder - are we the only country without sufficient intelligence to have a single central databank instead of multiple PRO's?

Brian -

Aside from the size of the lobbying interests involved, my understanding is one of the reasons the "Fairness in Music" act was able to pass was the PRO licensing rules themselves. A restaurant/bar that had music playing in the bar was expected to pay a royalty based upon the entire square footage of the establishment - even if the bar is a separate room with 20% or less of the floor area and the music occurs when the dining room is closed or they have attempted to sound proof the two from one another so that the diners aren't disturbed by the music. In many cases their liquor license requires them to do business as a single entity so the PRO's treated them as a single entity in determining their size and capacity. The restaurants were able to portray themselves as victims of the PRO rules.


[This message has been edited by Marty Helly (edited 12-09-2003).]

Marty my home

Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again!