Law Talk

By Richard Gee

© 2006 Richard M. Gee. All Rights reserved. Used by Permission.

As always, please remember that his column is provided for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. If you would like to act on any of the information you read in this column, please seek the advice of qualified counsel. Your comments and suggestions are appreciated and I will do my best to make sure that I respond to each letter in a subsequent column.

I have a restaurant and bar and have been thinking of including live music as well as “muzak” type music when live music isn’t available. As a folk musician, I, of course, want to book folk acts. Yesterday, I was approached by a fellow from ASCAP telling me that I had to pay $200 for a license to play music in the bar. Is that legal? Do I have to pay it? Besides, I’ve heard that folk writers rarely get paid much for their songs from these guys.