Open mic nights at bar lead to lawsuit from BMI over music, ask for $121,000

[Ian David]

38. I agree. They should be able to pay $7.12 per day. And it seems fair.

However, what I don't understand is this:

1) You pay BMI $7.12 per day to keep their artists from being ripped-off. Fine.

2) A musician walks into the bar and plays a song written by Billy Joel.

3) How does any of that $7.12 find its way into the hands of Billy Joel?

4) What if you have a bar that plays nothing but songs written by Jonathon Coulton all day long? Shouldn't a huge chunk of your $7.12 go to Jonathon Coulton, and none of it go to Billy Joel?

5) Suppose you have a national chain called Bar out of Hell that plays nothing but the music of Jonathon Coulton-- thousands of restaurants, sprouting-up all over the place like Starbucks. Shouldn't Jonathon Coulton be getting fabulously wealthy off of the BMI payments from your chain, and Billy Joel not seeing a damn cent?

6) If you own a chain of bars that play both kinds of music-- Country AND Western-- shouldn't only Country and Western writers be getting paid from your BMI payments?

7) I think that BMI should work similarly to how Spotify works. The venue should pay their $7.21 a day, and submit a playlist, and then a portion of the dues should be divided-up among the songwriters in accordance to how often their songs are played.