[dissention]

Originally Posted by hayley

That's not true at all, actually.

Every venue, large or small, arena or bar/club, has to pay BMI and ASCAP for any songs played on their premises, whether it's from a live act or even over a P.A. (in the case of "Bootylicious" during the TISL tour).

Most venues do this by paying a flat fee for year-round licenses from both BMI and ASCAP, and occasionally SESAC. They do report what songs are played to the organizations, and the moneys collected from these flat fee licenses are then divvied up and paid to the songwriters, generally on a quarterly basis.

It's nothing to make a living off of, but FM does actually get paid for playing their OWN songs in concert.

Thanks for the info, Hayley. I had read an interview with Sheryl Crow from a few years back and the interviewer asked her about playing so many cover songs in concert and she made some remark that she was glad she didn't have to pay to play them or she'd be dirt poor.