Since the start of 2015, three Baton Rouge area businesses—Quarters in Baton Rouge, Laguna Beach Daiquiris in Denham Springs and Moonlight Inn in French Settlement—have been slapped with suits for allegedly playing copyrighted music without paying licensing fees.
All three establishments were sued by Broadcast Music Inc., also known as BMI.
As Business Report details in a featured from its current issue, federal copyright law requires bars, restaurants and any other business that plays copyrighted music of any kind to pay music licensing fees to performance rights organizations such as BMI, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers.
Most bar and restaurant owners simply pay the fees and consider them just another cost of doing business. Those who try to skirt the fees face copyright infringement lawsuits.
A BMI spokesperson says the company has dismissed its case against Moonlight Inn due to the August flood, which caused major damages and has shuttered the business for the time being. The cases against Quarters and Laguna Beach Daiquiris remained open as of mid-September.
The owners of both businesses either did not return calls for comment or could not be reached. BMI hasn’t had much luck reaching them either.
Prior to filing a lawsuit, BMI makes numerous attempts to reach business owners via phone calls, letters and in-person visits, says spokesperson Jodie Thomas. In the case of Quarters, for example, the suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana says BMI has made 58 phone calls and mailed 28 letters since June 2014.
“We only take legal action as a last resort,” says Thomas.
Those in the Baton Rouge area who have tried to fight the suits in the past haven’t had much luck. In 2014, a BMI suit targeted Papi’s Fajita Factory. Adrian Martinez, then co-owner of the Mexican restaurant in Denham Springs, told Business Report at that time that he believed the local bands who played at Papi’s were responsible for paying music licensing fees.
“They want to bring me to court, we can go to court,” Martinez said. “But I don’t see why I need to pay money to them when I’m not the one who plays their music.”
But the restaurant eventually dropped its fight and began paying the licensing fee.
“I guess you have to,” says Papi’s Fajita Factory manager Henry Gomez. “I don’t think it’s fair, but it is what it is.”
A BMI license can cost as little as $350 per year, depending on the size of the establishment, the type of music being played and how often music is performed. But venue occupancy also factors into the cost of a license, and for larger businesses that frequently play music or host live shows, the cost of acquiring licenses from BMI, ASCAP and SESAC can reach into the tens of thousands of dollars. The fees are charged to any business that plays copyrighted music, from bars to bowling alleys. The only legal way for a business to get around paying a licensing fee is to host bands that only play original material or just have a radio playing.
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