Re: How does royalty work for music played on radio?

"David Kaye" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
>
> > Some cheap-ass talk radio stations don't use bumper music because it
> > is too expensive. [KDWN in Las Vegas for example.] What are the costs
> > related to playing music from the other side, i.e. radio station
> > instead of artist?
>
> The pricing is a significant part of a station's budget.  Add ASCAP,
> BMI, and SESAC's royalties together and this can often be the
> second-biggest cost in running a station after staff costs.

That seems a bit exaggerated. Music licence fees seldom exceed a range of
2.8% to 3% of staiton gross billings.

Things that would probably be more at all but the biggest stations:
utilities, rent, agency commissions, sales expenses other than commisssions,
ratings services, insurance (including liability or self-insurance limits),
promotion, advertising, etc.
>
>
> If I'm not mistaken, a song doesn't count as as requiring a license
> unless more than 1 minute is played of it.  When I worked in
> talkradio, theme music was something like 50 or 55 seconds to make
> sure that there was no way it would slip above the minute mark.

Wrong. Talk staitons usually have a licence that covers incidental use of
music, both in commercials and in bumpers or even in interviews. The length
of the sample is not relevant.
>
> I do know that when I used to fill out the BMI forms as a DJ, there
> was a spot to check if the song was used as a theme.  However, I think
> that was done to better calculate how typical the use of a song was
> when calculating royalties for the total number of stations in the
> country.

These forms are done as a dump of computer music scheduling logs now for
music stations, and I have never seen a talk station itemize (although I
guess they should). They just have the limited license.