AT> In a message to Moderator  Jeff Edmonson
 AT> wrote:
E>>  If a band goes in a beer-joint and sings "Peaceful Easy Feeling", do
JE>>  they owe money to The Eagles?
 AT> The bar owner is SUPPOSED to belong to either BMI or ASCAP,
 AT> which takes care of royalties.  I'm not sure exactly how they
 AT> determine what monies are owed.  In other words, I don't know
 AT> how ASCAP/BMI knows if a band plays a Pink Floyd tune or not,
 AT> which would determine if PF is owed royalties.  In all my
 AT> years of bar-band playing, I never thought to ask.
ASCAP and BMI used to have 'flat' rates that were charged monthly or 
quarterly.
The facility paid by the amount of seating available.  I've known of clubs 
that set up huge bars just to cut down on the amount of seating available 
when the owners or managers knew one of the performing affiliates'  reps 
would be coming by and THEN change the bar out to a much smaller one, so the 
seating could go up!
The fees are broken down by seating capacity, something like  up to 100, from 
101-300, 301-500, and then above it (figures might have changed over the 
years).  Last time I had any 'inside' information as to how much a particular 
club was paying - one that seated over 300 was paying close to 1500 a 
quarter. One that seated over 1000 was paying around 1500 a month. There was 
several bars in Florida investigated back when I lived there because the 
clubs weren't paying fees at all to any performing affliate.  Just like the 
IRS, there was a possibility of the club getting closed.  The fine for not 
having been paying the fees - instead of giving them a possible lower rate, 
the clubs had to pay a much higher rate per month/quarter for as long as the 
club had been 'officially' open - as far as sales tax and alcohol/liquor 
licenses were concerned.
Nancy
---
---------------