Live entertainment expense bar license#
Live entertainment expense bar series#

“When you register those songs for the live performances, then they know the song’s already in their system, they know it was performed at this place, and then they run it through whatever crazy royalty formulas they have. He registered the song for each of those performances with ASCAP and input information such as the date it was played, the size of the venue and the admission fee. He recalled that he represented a songwriter who wrote a hit for a well-known artist who played that song every night of a big summer arena tour. Plumb said the two generally split this income 50-50.

The amount a songwriter and publisher get paid for an artist’s live performance can vary wildly, with some songs garnering a couple of bucks or hundreds of dollars.

Live entertainment expense bar license#

The venue they’re playing should already have a license in place, giving him or her the right to perform the song. This would also apply when an artist is performing her or his “own” song, whose rights belong to someone else. He noted that music publishers and their songwriters will affiliate with a society, register their song into the organization’s system and let them know what percentage of the song they own. Plumb, who served as vice president of licensing at Bluewater Music, said it’s the venue that pays the fee, not the artists themselves. The fee they collect, known as the public-performance royalty, applies to live venues, bars, restaurants, television networks and radio stations, said Benom Plumb, the program director for music industry studies and music management at University of the Pacific. Licenses for smaller establishments, like bars and restaurants, generally cost about $2 or $3 per day. Tobi Parks, the owner of a live music venue called xBk in Des Moines, Iowa, and a copyright and entertainment lawyer, said licensing costs are based on either your capacity or a percentage of your revenue.Īn ASCAP spokesperson said that for its licenses, the rates can depend on how the music was performed, the size of the establishment and whether admission was charged. Venues pay an annual fee for a blanket public-performance license, granting them access to any of the society’s works, which can range into the millions. (The performer does not get a royalty unless he or she wrote the song.) These music societies, which represent copyright owners, then issue licenses to performing arts venues, like Walt Disney Concert Hall or Staples Center in Los Angeles.įranzen added that the organizations have formulas for paying royalties to the songwriter and publisher. Almost all artists are signed with a music publishing company - prominent publishers in the industry include Warner Chappell, BMG, Sony, Kobalt and Universal, according to Don Franzen, a lawyer who specializes in entertainment and business law and is an adjunct professor with the music school at the University of California, Los Angeles.įranzen said sometimes an artist will enter a deal in which the publisher controls the copyright and in turn makes a deal with a performance-rights organization like the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers or BMI. (BBC Radio has a “Live Lounge” segment dedicated to this very premise.) In the world of live performances, as Lusnia pointed out, artists will often do cover songs. Songs and the rules governing the right to use them can get complicated really quickly - there are several different types of royalties spanning music on streaming services, social media and stages. How do “royalties” for music (songs) work? I used to attend many live shows and often would see bands play other bands’ songs live, for example I saw U2 play a portion of Lou Reed’s “Sweet Jane.” If they do so, do they owe the other artist/band money for doing so? Also, do they need permission to do so before performing the song? If an artist sells the rights of their own music, then tours, do they have to pay for the right to play their own songs? Do songs eventually go into public domain like books?Įven when artists pay homage to other artists, there’s a price tag.

Listener Paul Lusnia from Santa Rosa, California, asked:

Live entertainment expense bar series#

Ever wondered if recycling is worth it ? Or how store brands stack up against name brands? Check out more from the series here. This is just one of the stories from our “I’ve Always Wondered” series, where we tackle all of your questions about the world of business, no matter how big or small.