Pay to play

Last week, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers filed a lawsuit against MacArthur Park in Franklin Square, alleging that the restaurant never purchased a license to play music from singers and songwriters that ASCAP represents.

The suit against MacArthur Park is one of nine separate copyright infringement lawsuits that ASCAP filed against bars and restaurants on Long Island. ASCAP alleges that the bars and restaurants were playing its members’ copyrighted music without permission.

“Hundreds of thousands of well-run businesses in communities across the nation recognize the importance of paying music creators to use their music, and understand that it is both the lawful and right thing to do,” said Vincent Candilora, executive vice president of licensing for ASCAP. “However, each of these nine establishments on Long Island has decided to use music without compensating songwriters. By filing these actions today, ASCAP is standing up for songwriters whose creative work brings great value to all businesses that publicly perform their music.”

ASCAP is a membership association that operates on a non-profit basis and represents more than a half million singers, songwriters, composers and publishers. It collects licensing fees for the use of its members’ music and distributes the royalties.

The organization represents huge artists like Bob Seger and Billy Joel, but also lesser-known people like Don Schlitz, who wrote the song “The Gambler” for Kenny Rogers. Every time the song is played, Don Schlitz earns royalties from it, as well as some of the licensing fees that bars and restaurants pay to ASCAP.

ASCAP says that, for a bar/restaurant like MacArthur Park, the annual licensing fees would be about $730 for only recorded music and about $2,190 for both recorded and live performances. The pricing structure is based on the occupancy of the establishment.

“We use the fire code,” Candilor explained. “[The restaurants] don’t set it, we don’t set it. It’s something that’s up on the wall that our licensing representatives can look at.”