FOR Commercial Setups

[ToddH]

Anyone who have done any commercial setups please respond here. I am talking about Malls, business's or anything that is non residential where you have used the lights/music for an event or just for viewing pleasure. My question is on Copyrights. Did you all purchase a Performance Copyright from BMI or who ever? If you are not selling anything nor require any donations or $$ in any way shape or form, do you still require to purchase a performance License?

 

Thanks,

Todd

[jstorms]

If you look at the licensing agreements for many of these sites including BMI they still want a fee for any public showing. If you are in a location like a mall or any sort of business it really isn't non-profit, licensing companies will see it as a draw to bring shoppers into the store. Often it is based on the number of people that will see it and what kind of license you are looking for.

 

I know this isn't your question, but I've seen this come up... that getting approval of the artist is not sufficient. While they might get a kick out of seeing their music done to lights they aren't the license holders. Sometimes you'll bump into an artist who isn't under a label, but even then they'll typically have a lawyer and you'll need a letter from them.

 

I saw a post from William B. on FB where he spoke to one of these places and they said he was fine if there was absolutely no link (even indirectly) to a commercial use. He tends to think things out pretty well, you might want to look up his post there.

[Orville]

From what research I've done on commercial vs residential {your own private home}, commerical proprties of ANY type {incluing City, State/Public Parks}, they ALL would require licensing.  If it's on commercial property of any kind, licensing is not only neededm but usually required from the big music industries.

 

If on your own property and no fee's or montery donations are accepted, then no licensing is needed/required.  However, the donation exceptions that do not require a license are those such as food pantries, money collected for non-profit charities or pet rescue organizations.

 

But, if you're asking for donations to help pay YOUR electric bill, buy more controllers or buy more lights for YOUR personal use, then licensing is needed, because then, that is considered "for profit" and licensing would be required for every musical rendition in your show.

 

The Demented Elf really did some in depth digging and got us a lot of excellent info on this from some of the BIG music industries, and this is pretty much what it all boils down to on licensing requirements.

 

Probably NOT what you wanted to hear, but that's it in a nutshell.   I'm sure the Demented Elf's posting on this is still around the LOR Forums somewhere.   This topic tends to surface at least a couple of times a year.

[ToddH]

Thanks all for your responses, we purchased what is called a blanket performing license from BMI for 250.00 for the month and one from

ASCAP. So for a total of a little over 500.00 we are covered...better to be safe than sorry. For those who do this on a commercial level, do you all require the client to purchase the license or is it something you offer and if so what do you charge for it?

[gc75067]

is that license to only be used at one location or is it a license for your "business" to use them as you wish, at any amount of locations for that month?

[Orville]

is that license to only be used at one location or is it a license for your "business" to use them as you wish, at any amount of locations for that month?

The license is only good for one location, as you have to give the address and show times for the "performance{s}" of the music.  So if you did multiple locations, you'd have to get a license for each location, when Todd says he got a blanket license, that usually will cover any performance at the "commercial" location he specified for where the music would be utilized, and for almost any crowd size.

 

And Todd can inform us, if I'm mistaken, but I believe you still have to give some type of estimated crowd projection {how many folks may see the show during the month} for the month/duration of how long the show will be in operation that the license covers.  I think there may be a little more to it than what I can recall for the moment.

 

Had a friend try and set me up with doing this for businesses in the area that he deals with, when I told him how much I'd have to pay in multiple licensing fees for commercial use at assorted locations, he then figured that idea would be very short lived.  Nor would I want to even get into that type of thing.  It's not for me anyway, but even if it were, I'd need to be a millionaire just to pay for the licensing rights for the number of businesses he was trying to get me to set these light shows up at.