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Station Music Licensing Obligations/EAS Chair by Kai Aiyetoro May, 2004 Station Music Licensing The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) and the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers (SESAC) are organizations that collect the royalty fees associated with music played on radio and streamed on the Internet. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) deals with Internet streaming only. Each organization may charge your radio station for use of their artists' materials. Many think that SESAC is not part of the scenario because of the word "European," but many artists of all genres are represented by SESAC. Each organization gives you the licensing right to play music composed by these artists. Stations are required to pay fees to each of these organizations if they use music from artists represented by the organization in any form. Rates are:
All fees are due to ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC by the end of the year, December 31. Stations are required to submit play lists upon request, so it is advised to keep these records available. "...ASCAP, BMI and SESAC, upon request, a music-use report during one week of each calendar year." - US Copyright Law NFCB has negotiated with ASCAP, BMI and SESAC for the next five year period of broadcast rights. There are additional fees for webcasting, although if you are a university or college station there may be an agreement that covers you for webcasting only. Even if the ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC fees are covered by your university, RIAA fees are required for webcasting. Stations that receive Community Service Grants from CPB are covered for all broadcast adn webcasting licenses. To determine which artists are covered by these organizations, go to the following websites: ASCAP: www.ascap.com; BMI: www.bmi.com; SESAC: www.sesac.com NFCB has developed a group buy for all NFCB member stations through LIVE 365.COM for hosting your site, at 15% off their regular rates. For more information about LIVE 365.COM, contact gjamison@live365.com. EAS Chair "For many LPFM stations, the new TFT EAS 911D is recommended because it was built with LPFM in mind," said Michael Brown of Brown Broadcast. "It has built-in and stable receivers, built-in printer, is reliable, well supported, easy to program, and is built by one of the two major manufacturers that have consistently shown close attention to all the legalities and details for LPFM. But it also has no provision for more than two receivers (internal or external)." The FCC requires only two signals to be monitored. Full station participation in the state and local portions of EAS is "voluntary." But this may not be satisfactory for all of the requirements in every state. "It is our understanding that no state can require a station to monitor more than two stations. However, some EAS chairpersons have monitoring assignments for as many as five stations - and many with three," said Brown. LPFM stations are now required (as of October 24, 2002) to have EAS equipment in place and functioning at all LPFM stations upon inception. LPFM stations eagerly await the opportunity to serve their local community in every way possible, including providing Emergency Alert System announcements. Many of these organizations are working with very small budgets, and have found the purchase of the higher-end EAS models to be a hardship. The NFCB LPFM Advisory Board is working on getting the state chairs to allow LPFM stations to monitor just two signals, as mandated by the FCC. We encourage LPFM stations to contact their state EAS chairperson so that they can be included in the State Plan, and to verify their monitoring assignments. The FCC listing at http://www.fcc.gov/eb/eas/plans.html is for state EAS plans and contact information, but only identifies 32 state plans. If your state plan is not available, contact information for the chairs of all 50 states is at http://www.fcc.gov/eb/eas/chco.html.
Kai Aiyetoro
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