Oakland Restaurant Association Roundtable Discussion - October 2nd

Please join us at the Chamber for the first OAKLAND RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION (ORA) ROUNDTABLE SESSION – FREE! Event details below:

ORA Roundtable Workshop | OCTOBER 2nd | 2pm | FREE: ASCAP and BMI Music Licensing Assistance

If you own a radio station or a restaurant and you want to broadcast or play music, what you need are public performance rights-- the right to play music that the general public will hear in one way or another. Obviously, if you own a radio station playing 300 or 400 songs every day, obtaining public performance writes from every label and publisher is impossible. Therefore, public performance rights licensing is now handled by two very large companies named ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) and BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated) that simplify the process. Each one handles a catalog of about 4,000,000 songs.

A radio station will typically purchase from ASCAP and BMI what are called blanket licenses to broadcast music. A blanket license lets the station play anything it likes throughout the year. ASCAP and BMI decide how to divide up the money among all the rights owners.

Any establishment, including a restaurant, that wants to play music that will be heard by the general public needs a license as well. If you do not pay and you get caught, you can be sued. Beware, the fines are pretty steep -- sometimes thousands of dollars.

 Come join us on Tuesday October 2, at 475 14^th St (Suite 100, Board Room) to learn how to best respond to this issue, it promises to be a frank and entertaining conversation with Philip Harris Lead Attorney of Philip Harris Law.