You’re a famous musician and you walk into a small home-town bar to hear a local independent band playing one of your hits. You know you’re not getting paid for it but your song is being played to promote the name of another band who is clearly being paid by the venue. If your song plays on the radio, you receive a payout for this. So where is the difference here?
With companies in place today like ASCAP(American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers) bands and venues can be sued for promoting the playback of cover music. These companies are in place to make sure their contracted artists receive the royaties they deserve from any type of playback from radio all the way to television advertisements. The problem arises where they don’t employ enough people to keep a full tally of this, leaving many playbacks unheard.
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