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

[HiPointDem]

144. there's not money in it mainly because of the dominance of corporations and organizations like

bmi, who siphon most of the money into their own pockets and the pockets of a few 'stars' while shutting down small players, including local venues.

A bunch of you sent in this NY Times puff piece that basically follows around a BMI "enforcer," for a day, watching as she tries to get restaurants, clubs, bars, skating rinks, etc. to pay up for playing music in their establishments. It's all legal, but it has all the hallmarks of a pure shakedown -- which is why operations like BMI and ASCAP are notorious for doing more harm than good, by making it much more difficult for up-and-coming musicians to find venues to play in.

Many venues simply stop playing music, rather than deal with expensive BMI/ASCAP licenses. On top of that, because of the way these systems work, they tend to funnel money disproportionately to big name artists, again harming less well known songwriters. BMI, in fact, has been particularly obnoxious about this. Last year, when a songwriter who had not received any of the promised royalties was brought up, BMI responded that it wasn't their problem, and "I would like to tell him is that he needs to write a hit song." Nice, huh?

Then there's the new tools that BMI is using to track down everyone who's playing music. It's spying on more and more areas where music is played, and the reporter discussed with a few people, and they all found it creepy. BMI's response? They like that people refer to them as "Big Brother."

Friends I talked to had a similar reaction. To a one, they said: "Jesus. Sounds like Big Brother." When I mentioned this to DeBusk, he smiled ominously. "Yes. Well. We're here to help."

Finally, the closing vignette is really kinda sickening. The reporter follows the "salesperson" as she goes to talk to a struggling restaurant who has trouble paying the bills. After a bit of "negotiation" she gets them to pay up and then admits she knows she's taking money that the owners really need:

Baker accepted Ross's invitation and sat down in the booth with Ross and her pug, Frank. Out came the checkbook. "I could tell she was low on money," Baker told me later. "I could tell it was hard for her to shell out the money."

Sickening. This is legalized extortion. And, make no mistake. It's all very legal. But we should be asking why.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100806/15462810537.shtml

Fact is, corporate america, and its enforcement arms like bmi, is devoted to eliminating or rendering subservient all players but themselves.