[The Bard Rocks]

Yes Ted, the license fee is often just a few hundred. That's what our free summer concert series pays - for 5 concerts. I imagine most small open mike venues cannot afford that much. In my area these are all held at churches and have a zero budget, depending upon the generosity of those attending to supply food and beverages. Maybe the open mikes held at bars bring in enough extra business to justify the expense, but my bet is that most of them would give it up if confronted with the threat of a lawsuit, which ASCAP is quick to do.

Let's do some hypothetical numbers: if their take was $500 for someone holding monthly open mikes, that would be be over $40 per night. You could get that with 9 patrons paying $5 each. It sounds doable for many. Maybe someone can give us more accurate numbers.

My personal problem are with their strong arm tactics and with my suspicion that the songwriters whose songs are featured by local players, that they would receive nothing. There is no way to monitor what was played, and no attempt to do so, so I cannot see how someone who is an ASCAP member, but little known, would ever get their share. Probably someone here can give an explanation. But for me, I was so turned off by the way they did things that, as an original artist, I am unlikely to ally myself with them.

I have been told the excuse of having only public domain or original material is not good enough to stand up in court. It's good to keep in mind that legal and ethical are not the same thing, though they are often equated.