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Playing a BMI-only licensed venue
Well this thread is as close to a "gigging" theme as I could find....
Got an email not long ago from a venue I was going to be playing at a few days later, saying that they were only allowing BMI-licensed cover songs from musicians playing there. I of course wanted to respect their wishes so I deleted all the non-BMI stuff from my three-hour setlist that night. Thank god the Beatles are on the list!… anyway it put a big dent in my repertoire including lots of my most popular and favorite tunes – John Mayer, Eagles, Neil Young, Billy Joel, etc. I got through the night OK but it was a curveball for sure. (I assume all the artists I had to delete from my list were ASCAP-only artists.) A great reason though to play a few more originals than usual, and to work on more of them too – as well as to up my game in learning other new covers. I get both sides of the licensing issue but IMO, I’d think licensing is called for when people are paying a cover charge or buying tickets to a show. In the absence of that, it just seems like a corporate money grab that’s probably not benefiting any of the artists I DO play. Certainly not the case with a little old lounge lizard like me…. Oh well, it is what it is. Anyone else run into a “glass half full” issue like this?
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