Music rights organizations are punishing Madison restaurants and bars for playing music - whether live or recorded - by making owners pay yearly licensing fees.
Organizations, such as Broadcast Music, Inc. and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers have the right to charge according to copyright laws, but more often than not, they do not gather sufficient evidence nor sufficient proof as to which songs were played by the establishments. BMI and ASCAP have no way of knowing.
For most venues, these organizations adjust the charges based on popular music because they figure that is what most bars and restaurants are playing. These ambiguous justifications can be detrimental to local restaurants and bars. It is excessive to charge a local French restaurant fees that a restuaruant playing Kanye West's latest CD would incur.
Like this situation, many Madison restaurants and bars house live bands that play jazz and other genres that fall far from Kanye West on the spectrum of musical genres.
The money that is collected from local venues is supposed to be distributed to the artists, but depending on the artist, the reimbursments can be unbalanced. Some local musicians who are members of music rights organizations receive checks for a mere 20 dollars - which is low compared to the thousands of dollars restaurant owners pay to play music. Realistically speaking, it would be impossible for a restaurant to adequately monetarily compensate artists for their efforts and still manage to stay in business. That said, the fees seem somewhat superfluous considering barely anything goes to the artists in the first place.
For local restaurant and bar owners, these fees are cutting into their profits and discouraging them from playing in their restaurants at all. Music, especially live, adds to any local dining experience. Music helps to define Madison as a lively, cultured city.
The fundamental problem with this type of regulation is that there is no third party to monitor the validity of the claims.
Moreover, if a restaurant or bar owner wants to fight a claim, the music rights organizations can just sue for copyright infringement and muscle their way past the arguments of the restaurant.
However, restaurant and bar owners are naive to think they can simply play music without having to pay for it.
Artists deserve compensation for their accomplishments. Their headstrong stance of refusing to pay or ignoring the advances of BMI or the ASCAP, among others, serves only to negatively impact the singers and songwriters involved.
Local venue owners must continue to pay these fees for Madison to maintain its unique identity, but music rights organizations need to find a more honest way to charge owners for the music they play.
