TitusCarnathan Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 If some one wants that much money from me they will have to take it from my cold dead hands I think these people know already what we do These displays are all over tv Internet. Etc... I am sure they check you tube so chances are it poped up if you look at their site they sell licences to commercial but not to private residents and my display is for my friends which happens to be most of my neighbors if someone outside the "circle" who am I to stop them why ?should I put plumbers putty in their ear that will teach them to listen to my music also if I have to buy a licence then my druggie neighbor that blast music better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedementedelf Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 I thought I would go to the Horses mouth on this and called BMI and ASCAP. I just heard back from BMI....Home based light Christmas light displays do not need licensing. It is considered Private use. Using a part 15 transmiter does not make a difference. Now if you charge for people to view your display that is a different issue. I suspect ASCAP will have the same view. If anyone wishes the name of he BMI rep contact me via PM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Roberson Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 thedementedelf wrote: I thought I would go to the Horses mouth on this and called BMI and ASCAP. I just heard back from BMI....Home based light Christmas light displays do not need licensing. It is considered Private use. Using a part 15 transmiter does not make a difference. Now if you charge for people to view your display that is a different issue. I suspect ASCAP will have the same view. If anyone wishes the name of he BMI rep contact me via PM.Sweet! End of discussion!Well, I doubt it, but thanks for the information.:cool:Now we can move on to "charge for people to view your display". Does that include taking donations for a local charity????It will get interesting if ASCAP has a different answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitusCarnathan Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 Thanks for calling them I tried emailing them last night and got a response today that I am to call them I didnt have the time to call them yet but this saves me the Phone call Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LORi P Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 displaysinmotion_will wrote:heres how i became aware of the need to have a license my display was featured on the news in 2007, a couple of weeks later i got a letter from BMI saying that if i wanted to continue using music from their artsist that i was going to need a license, they gave me the oppurtunity to pay the licensing fee for that year and i have been getting a license ever since. Ill upload a copy of the letter when i find it.Well, if Will got his wrist slapped, and Demented Elf just got a completely different answer from someone at BMI, then it seems that BMI does not have a solid grip on the issue, either. Maybe Will just got 'lucky' and a jerk at BMI happened to watch the news when he was having a bad day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Rise Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 I think Will is doing a commercial show. At least that's what his license states."As the proprietor of a business in the state of Indiana"So his business requires a license for his shows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
displaysinmotion_will Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 In 2007 I was only doing my home, I'm still trying to find the letter that they sent me.they may have relaxed their rules since then, since the dementedelf called and they told him he didnt need one i would do what he did and call. ill make a suggestion just to cover your butt for the just incase situation.call bmi dont give them your personal information just tell them your considering doing this and ask them if you need one or not, if they say you dont i would get the representative's info like name and employee # keep that info in a safe place and in the unlikely event someone does come to you just give them that info and tell them you were told you didnt need one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james campbell Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 I think if we could get bmi involved and have thier clients wave their fees they couls charge for a temp holiday license. I think most of us would be willing to pay 15 to 25 bucks to be for sure legal. The best part is that all money would be donated to the salvaton army or another christmas charity. I think if the artist of the songs knew the money was being donated they would go for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Roberson Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 james campbell wrote: I think if we could get bmi involved and have thier clients wave their fees they couls charge for a temp holiday license. I think most of us would be willing to pay 15 to 25 bucks to be for sure legal. The best part is that all money would be donated to the salvaton army or another christmas charity. I think if the artist of the songs knew the money was being donated they would go for it.Lets not, and say we did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitusCarnathan Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 Paul I agree with you why would we want to pay for something we dont have to Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedementedelf Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 "call bmi dont give them your personal information just tell them your considering doing this and ask them if you need one or not"This is exactly what I did. They consider it private use. Again I will say if you are charging money for your display it is a different story.Like Paul said this should end the discussion. If you are asking for donations for charity, you are not charging people to view the display. Donations are voluntary.T110431 When the guy from BMI called me he said he also had my email info and would send me his contact info. I bet he thought your email and my call came from same person. If his name is Trace could you PM me his info? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitusCarnathan Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 no emails right now but I will keep checking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zman Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 I have some very interesting insight on this subject, and stopped worring many years back. I personally know Bob Rivers, who does the Twisted (Christmas) Tunes. I got to know him years ago via my display and the use of his Yellow Snow song in my show. He is a local DJ on one of the radio stations here in Seattle. He was so concerned that I was playing his song 6-7 times a night publically, that he personally asked me to sequence his Decorations tune and use it in my show as well, and THEN, he customized it for my display. He is in the biz, and I figured he would have raised some question years ago if there was ever one to be raised. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 zman wrote: he personally asked me to sequence his Decorations tune and use it in my show as well, and THEN, he customized it for my display.He customized it for you?!? I use that song in my display! (As well as 4 other Bob Rivers songs.) How was it customized? Is there any chance I can get a copy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 Hey Demented Elf, still no word from ASCAP yet?Would be very interested to know if they gave you the same information as BMI did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedementedelf Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 Not yet. I'll contact them again on Monday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zman Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 Steven wrote:zman wrote: he personally asked me to sequence his Decorations tune and use it in my show as well, and THEN, he customized it for my display.He customized it for you?!? I use that song in my display! (As well as 4 other Bob Rivers songs.) How was it customized? Is there any chance I can get a copy?Steven, he did not actually personalize it, Spike O'Neil one of his radio side kicks and member of Spike and the Impalers (of which Bob plays keyboards/backup vocals) had to do the bit, but Bob had him record it. In the middle where the guy throws open the sash and yells "Hey pal give it a rest it's 3 in the morning" Spike inserted "Mark & Tracy" for me and my wife, it's Spike who does that bit in the original. Bob's producer re-mixed it and fired it off to me. I told Bob I would emblaze Spike in my show. So I made a wireframe of Spike and he has a cameo appearance every night. Kind of nostalgic and "homer-ish". It adds a local flare to my show. When Judy Pancoast came out last year, Bob showed up and he did her Candy duet with her. A priceless moment.He customized it for me as a favor since I spent however many hours sequencing the song. I don't think customizing is something he is going to do all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedementedelf Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 Ok, I just heard back from ASCAP. Thier response was the same as BMI. No license rewuired. This is considered private use as long as you do not charge people to view the display. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeH Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 thedementedelf wrote: Ok, I just heard back from ASCAP. Thier response was the same as BMI. No license rewuired. This is considered private use as long as you do not charge people to view the display.Yay...no more worries.MikeH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 Fantastic! I was pretty certain we didn't need a license for this, and now it has been confirmed by both ASCAP and BMI! Thank you DementedElf for fact finding on this as I'm sure this will put a lot of folks at ease now.If it weren't for my visiting some of the displays in my area I wouldn't have gone out and bought many of the CD's I now have to sequence the songs use in my display as well.I think ASCAP and BMI see a bigger picture from our displays and know they also tend to generate sales for their music CD's from folks hearing songs they may not hear anywhere else during Halloween or Christmas.So I think they see this as a win-win scenario, so classifying our displays as private displays, which in essence they are since they are usually on ones own property. And now that we all know no license is required or needed we can all breathe easier and continue doing what we do.Again, thank you for verifying the info! Very much appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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