Hey everyone – been away for a while, but not really away – just sitting back, rocking down, and watching this beautiful Seattle summer unfold.

 

We (DHC) have been away from our open mic hosting duties for a while now.  The Mainstage is still going strong on Tuesday nights, through the will and determination of the new hosts Sean Hennessey and Andi Francoeur, two of the most talented musicians in town.  And of course, Kat rocks the bar and Gary rocks the soundboard – if you haven’t checked it out recently, you should really do so.  Lots of great music to be heard at the open mics in Seattle, which brings me to the larger point of this post.

 

If you get out there and check out the places with a night to play, you will often run into a few who don’t allow covers.  Sometimes it’s just the way the venue prefers it.  And that is totally cool.  No arguments about that.  But in other cases, the venue puts a restriction on what can be played because of the musicians’/artists’ unions (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and so on).  In order to be sure that musicians and songwriters are getting paid cash money, these unions clamp down on unauthorized performances of licensed material – that means you can’t play Raspberry Beret at an open mic unless you have gotten permission from Prince, and good luck with getting that phone call returned.  More commonly, the business can pay licensing fees to all of those organizations and be covered, but the fees are steep, and the fines for playing without a license are steeper when they add up.  How does ASCAP know who’s playing what on which night?  They send representatives to check it out.  And the business owner might receive a letter a couple of days later with an address where a remittance check can be sent.

 

I for one believe these unions are valuable – I would never want to see dues paying members deprived of their royalties for the work they have done.  The money that ASCAP et al distributes to these folks pays for health and dental and provides a well-deserved income.  But open mics are often held in little taverns and coffeeshops, and generally fall on a slow business night in order to bring out a few more people.  None of the musicians are getting paid; they come out, sign up on a list, wait a bit, have a beer or two, and then play three songs.  In my opinion, an “open mic exemption” from the union rules is overdue.

 

Businesses have shut down their open mic nights, and live or recorded music altogether, rather than pay the licensing fees.  That is a shame.  And I could be wrong, but I think if an appeal was made to the musicians and songwriters that the unions represent, asking to leave open mic nights out of the licensing tangle, those musicians and songwriters would at least consider it.  Musicians want their songs to be heard by as many people as possible, right?  And when some young guitar player steps onstage in front of a little crowd of people and tries a rendition of a pop song he or she loves, that is a worthy tribute.  And if that person goes on to make it big, and starts getting paid to play those covers, then the bean-counters should come back into the discussion.  Fair is fair. 

 

The question is this – does anybody know of an online tool for putting out a petition to the members of ASCAP/BMI/SESAC?  And if these folks received a copy of this petition, do you think they would support it?  Let us know your thoughts on this matter.  An open mic exemption could be very good for everybody – artists, businesses, and humanity in general.

 

Rock it down to rubble,

 

DHC

www.davehateschico.com

 

PS – DHC also keeps up a completely separate blog on MySpace (www.myspace.com/davehateschico2), but due to technical difficulties, you can’t get to them unless you subscribe to said blog.  Technology – what can you do?  J.