Fins Coffee in has hosted live music performances in Santa Cruz once or twice a week for several years, usually small groups or individuals doing acoustic sets while baristas steam milk for cappuccinos in the background. But a recent crackdown by music licensing giant BMI has left the Ocean Street establishment with a tough decision: pay several hundred dollars a year in fees or cease the strumming.
Fins Coffee in has hosted live music performances in Santa Cruz once or twice a week for several years, usually small groups or individuals doing acoustic sets while baristas steam milk for cappuccinos in the background. But a recent crackdown by music licensing giant BMI has left the Ocean Street establishment with a tough decision: pay several hundred dollars a year in fees or cease the strumming.
Fins, like several small venues and coffee shops around the nation, doesn’t charge a cover fee at the door for its live music events, making it not financially feasible to keep hosting music events legally.
“It is just plain, clear, and tested copyright law. Covers cannot be played, recorded or live, in a public place without a license from the copyright manager,” says Fins owner Brian Neuschwander. Two performance rights organizations, ASCAP and BMI—collect fees from venues and distribute them to their members. Fees vary based on things like venue size, seating capacity, and frequency of live music events.
Performance rights organizations have been criticized for their aggressive stance, and have been blamed for shutting down the small local music scenes on towns across the country. In the 90s, ASCAP faced public outcry for attempting to collect licensing fees from the Girl Scouts for singing campfire songs, eventually deciding to charge the Scouts just a symbolic $1 a year.
For Fins, the total amounted to about $400 a year owed to each organization. “I paid ASCAP for five years or more. BMI finally caught up with us. I was not willing to pay $800 in fees that did not bring benefit to us,” says Neuschwander. “ We are not a club charging a fee at the door and making money off the music played inside. But that makes no difference at all to BMI or ASCAP.”
