[BC] Re: question for the braintrust

[WFIFeng@aol.com]

In a message dated 01/23/2006 10:20:32 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
dcope at intercom.net writes:

> Actually, no.  We make money from selling advertising.  Two stations with
>  comparable signals can play the same music, yet station A bills much more
>  than station B.  Station A gets penalized for having the better sales staff
>  by paying higher ASCAP and BMI fees.  Who really made that money?  The 
music
>  or the sales staff?

Ya know what really burns me about this... that radio station already paid 
the "protection money" to Guido and his cronies. So, they got their check. Now, 
little Joe's Snack Shop wants to play that same radio station... and there's 
Guido, pounding on his door, demanding money! If that's not double-dipping, I 
dunno what is.

IMHO, this whole thing is akin to legalized extortion. (Almost like 
Insurance, but worse.)

The ultimate answer would be a fully digitized, automated system that keeps 
track of every song played, (exists, now) and then gives a tally every quarter 
(or year-end, etc.) of how many times each song was played... then pay the 
people accordingly. The present system is supposed to be fair, but it sure looks 
like it's not. There are artists & writers who see mere pittances each year, 
yet their music is being played on stations that are forking out handsome sums. 
If those stations could pay the writers/artists directly, they'd see a whole 
lot more money... and the middleman (Guido) would be out of a job. Tisk 
tisk... poor Guido. ;)

Willie...