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

[JDPriestly]

154. I picture Mozart presenting an opera in a theater, amateur musicians singing it

for their friends in their homes and then Mozart's business manager suing the musicians. Do you think we would be listening to much Mozart today if his live audiences had been so restricted in singing his tunes without paying royalties?

I have great sympathy for the musicians who write the music, but they need to have some sympathy for their fans who want to play and sing it.

How popular do you think well known songs like "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" or "Moon River" or "Take Five" or "Summertime" or "The Man I Love" or "Evita" or "Yesterday," and on and on would be if they were not performed in public places including bars by live musicians who did not write them.

True, composers deserve to make a little money from their compositions. But also true that performers deserve to make a little money when they sing or perform in small venues.

BMI means well, but, in the long run, it could well kill the business of performing its artists' music in clubs. I think it has more to lose from its fanatical enforcement of its copyrights than it can gain.

Jazz would not exist if the original composers of songs enforced their copyrights against the performers. It's a concept gone wild in my opinion. I understand why they want to sue for what they think are their losses, but it isn't a good idea.

Performers will just hold private parties, collect donations in the form of tips, and BMI won't know about it.