Essay On Bmi Shakedown

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Reflection Essay #2 After opening a new dance studio in Santa Monica, California, Ellen Cavalli, began receiving letters from the American Society for Composers, authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI). These letters told her that in order for her to use recorded music in her studio she would have to pay a yearly fee. Julie Wheelock, of the Los Angeles Times, reported in an article titled, Dance and Exercise Studios paying the Piper: BMI and ASCAP target businesses to collect music licensing fees under little-known copyright law, that Cavalli is one of thousands of people nationwide who are receiving demand letters, phone calls, and visits from representatives of BMI and ASCAP. These representative often show up at dance studios unannounced and during off hours trying to strong-arm business owners. It is generally two large men who seem very aggressive and use…show more content…
According to Mike Masnick, in the article, A Day In The Life Of Legalized Extortion: How The BMI Shakedown Works, illustrates that this is all legal but has the hallmark of a shakedown, making companies like BMI and ASCAP notorious for doing more harm than good. Furthermore, because of the way these systems work, they tend to funnel money disproportionately to big name artists while harming less well-known songwriters. BMI has been particularly obnoxious about this. For example, and undisclosed songwriter, did not receive any of the promised royalties, and when this matter was brought up, BMI responded that it was not their problem. One BMI employees even said, “I would like to tell him that he needs to write a hit song.” (Masnick) BMI also uses tactics of spying on venues to see if they’re playing music. The response that BMI gave was that they like that people often refer to them as ‘big brother.”
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