I spent several years on the Board of a small farmers market. We were really into developing the market into a community gathering spot - more than just a place to shop. We welcomed local bands and music education programs as a way to help them, help the market, and help the overall community.
Bands loved playing for us, and we loved having them. They would skip bigger markets, larger audiences, and gigs that did more than pay gas money just to join us. After a short time, we had more bands vying for spots than market days. The variety, especially for a smaller community, was pretty cool. It included variations on jazz, swing, rock, blues, string quartet, opera, country, fiddle, ska, and more. We even hosted music school recitals and tryouts.
Then came the letter.
Sony/BMG demanded that the market purchase a venue license or face threat of lawsuit. Long story short, if a piece of music is subject to copyright, users must pay a royalty. Since Sony/BMG owns most of the copyrights, the argument was that if a band played a cover song or even if they played an original song that is owned by Sony/BMG, then the market owed them money. It sounded too ridiculous to be true, but we did the research, and sure enough, the wording of the law supports them 100%. They offer a tiered system of licenses ranging from concert hall to nightclub to one-time concert - nothing geared to a non-paying audience that meets outside on a Saturday morning while they are shopping for groceries at a nonprofit venue.
The two 45-minute sets that took place each Saturday from April to October were considered to be 28 individual concerts. The cost would wipe us out. Plus it would only include Sony/ BMG music. Technically we would need separate agreement with all the other owners.
It turns out that markets across the country were being threatened. Noone could figure out a rhyme or reason as to why one market got a letter, but another nearby, did not. Many markets banned all music as a result.
At mine, we figured out that pre-1922 music was not subject to copyright. Most of our bands were regulars, and we worked with them so that they agreed to play only old-time, pre-1922 music, or original compositions not subject to licensing fees. Some bands, especially the ones who did rock, blues, and country covers, dropped out. Others took up the challenge to bring original, local and old-time music that was a good match for our farmers market, which is a very small town, locally-focused kind of place. We came up with an answer that worked. It means that audiences miss out on tons of favorite music. But we did get to keep our music program alive, and we get to encourage and build audience for the old Americana in American.
I hoped to learn enough about this in my Social Media class to confidently post and share content on the web without fear of a Sony/BMG moment. And - to be fair, also to make sure that artists and creators are fairly attributed and compensated for their work, as I know that our enahnced ability to copy and share makes that a big issue.
I did learn more than I started with. But, unfortunately (or perhaps, fortunately), allowable uses are vague enough to seem like "eye of the beholder" kind of standards. For instance - I can comment on a creation and quote it in part. I can use a part of a song, but not to create a mood. I can capture copyright material incidentally as long as it is not a primary focus, but I can use it to launch a discussion or to recombine it.
Confusing. It is easy to see how disputes happen.
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