Here’s some potentially good
news for independent touring artists.
After operating somewhat under the radar, both BMI and ASCAP have made a
big push in allowing songwriter artists to collect income from live performance
of their work. While income from live
public performance is of course implicit in the rights that BMI, ASCAP and
SESAC collect, as a practical matter the organizations historically only have
only paid this income to major artists
performing at major venues. According to
an article in the Tennessean a week or so ago, technological innovations now
allow the performing rights organizations to direct some of this income to
smaller acts who report their performances correctly.
The BMI system is called BMI Live, ASCAP’s is called
Onstage and SESAC has a program called Live Performance Notification
System.
I don’t think there is any data on how much a small or mid-range artist could
generate from these programs, but it would be foolish not to investigate
them. One doesn’t want to leave money on
the table. It is great to see technology
being used to assist songwriters and performers for once.
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