I find some of the comments I hear by the uninformed so amusing. I voted against the request by ASCAP to send them $305.00 so we can play music from a radio in city hall. That’s right…if you put the local music station on your PA system in your business you should send ASCAP a license fee. Never mind that the radio station already pays a license fee you must do so as well.
Alderman Ptak says that in his store several years ago in the mall ASCAP reps forced them to pay a fee because it was piped in his store. Do you think that’s acceptable? If we turn the local music station on at the LaSalle Pool and play it over the Pool speakers we are supposed to pay a fee…
That in my world is stealing.. and I refuse to pay ransom to some organization just because they ask for it. These artists are double,triple,etc dipping if they think that just because you play a radio station over a PA system you now should pay a fee. How long have musicians begged for airtime to get their music heard and now we have come full circle and they want to be paid basically by everyone within earshot even though they are paid by the stations airing it!
The Municipal League of which we as a city are a member has not taken a stand on this recent issue…that means they have not told their member cities to pay this or not pay this but have taken a wait and see attitude.
We apparently can’t wait to pay..which is laughable. Let me ask you these two questions….if you agree we should pay would you take the same stance if the fee were higher…say$2,000 to 4,000.00? How about if it included every time you personally turned on your radio in your car or at home?
What if you were automatically charged a fee (or Tax) everytime you listened to a song on your Ipod as you exercised? Would you support this fee then?
The truth is that’s what ASCAP is hoping for and they already charge some cities much higher fees based on population and are trying to get people who share music they have paid for with others a fee as well…
Funny though if you listen to talk radio ASCAP doesn’t charge you…
They can’t….yet….
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