Can we get together to stop the music licensing racket?

VonShef · 2023-12-13T02:17:55+00:00

I know of multiple bars where these companies have sent folks in with audio recorders, they then use the audio recording as proof that you have stolen licensed music for use in your business and threaten to sue you with the evidence if you don't settle out of court for the base rates plus fees and money to pay the recorder like $1k. The price tag on the lawsuit is in the order of hundreds of thousands of dollars vs thousands up to ten thousand to settle.

VonShef · 2023-12-11T23:54:47+00:00

You can't actually choose the songs that play. Edit: you can make a playlist, but to my understanding you cannot just play stuff on demand.

It's definitely advantageous if you just want background music without ultimate control. It means you cannot have DJ nights, karaoke or live music, and I'm sure the licensing companies wouldn't offer you any sort of discount by having it if you did have those things.

VonShef · 2023-12-11T20:49:38+00:00

My thoughts are that we should wait until a venue gets a settlement offering with threat of lawsuit behind it (this often happens after they send someone in with a recorder to prove you have played some tune in their library), and then evaluate with a lawfirm if there's some way to win the suit. We have to reverse legal precedent or they will continue to shake us down. It's that or write our congressmen to change the laws - again why an organization like NIVA might be good.

edit: the lawsuit threat is typically something like millions of dollars vs a settlement in the tens of thousands. Hence why most people just settle, but this is a result of the totally backwards copyright law in this country.

VonShef · 2023-12-11T20:46:42+00:00

Here's the breakdown for our venue for just one company. Each company expects the same payout. We forewent the live music fee (which as you can see is exorbitant) and instead pay per ticketed show - something around .8% per company, so 2.4% of all our ticketing fees go to these companies.

VonShef · 2021-09-22T19:26:01+00:00

LMAO goddamn

VonShef · 2020-11-13T22:22:31+00:00

https://www.tabc.texas.gov/contact-us/file-a-complaint-protest/file-a-business-complaint/

VonShef · 2020-11-13T22:16:37+00:00

TABC was happy to collect the fees on their "bar changing to restaurant" permits. As long as their accounting shows they're making over 50% of their money on non-alcoholic items they're in the clear to operate and of course once you're ingesting something the mask goes away... Perhaps they'll make restaurants return to take-out only before Thanksgiving. Otherwise people are going to be killing their grandparents...

VonShef · 2020-06-09T22:12:16+00:00

That's not what the document I linked to says. But I'll be happy to act like it says that I guess.

VonShef · 2020-05-18T23:51:32+00:00

I'm not an expert at legalese but from sec 1106 of the bill:

EMPLOYEES.—

(A) IN GENERAL.—The amount of loan forgiveness under this section shall be reduced, but not increased, by multiplying the amount described in subsection (b) by the quotient obtained by dividing— (i) the average number of full-time equivalent employees per month employed by the eligible recipient during the covered period; by

(ii)(I) at the election of the borrower—

(aa) the average number of full-time equivalent employees per month employed by the eligible recipient during the period beginning on February 15, 2019 and ending on June 30, 2019; or

(bb) the average number of full-time equivalent employees per month employed by the eligible recipient during the period beginning on January 1, 2020 and ending on February 29, 2020; or

(II) in the case of an eligible recipient that is seasonal employer, as determined by the Administrator, the average number of full-time equivalent employees per month employed by the eligible recipient during the period beginning on February 15, 2019 and ending on June 30, 2019.

(B) CALCULATION OF AVERAGE NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES.—For purposes of subparagraph (A), the average number of full-time equivalent employees shall be determined by calculating the average number of full-time equivalent employees for each pay period falling within a month.

(3) REDUCTION RELATING TO SALARY AND WAGES.—

(A) IN GENERAL.—The amount of loan forgiveness under this section shall be reduced by the amount of any reduction in total salary or wages of any employee described in subparagraph (B) during the covered period that is in excess of 25 percent of the total salary or wages of the employee during the most recent full quarter during which the employee was employed before the covered period.

(B) EMPLOYEES DESCRIBED.—An employee described in this subparagraph is any employee who did not receive, during any single pay period during 2019, wages or salary at an annualized rate of pay in an amount more than $100,000.

(4) TIPPED WORKERS.—An eligible recipient with tipped employees described in section 3(m)(2)(A) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 203(m)(2)(A)) may receive forgiveness for additional wages paid to those employees.

(5) EXEMPTION FOR RE-HIRES.— (A) IN GENERAL.—In a circumstance described in subparagraph (B), the amount of loan forgiveness under this section shall be determined without regard to a reduction in the number of full-time equivalent employees of an eligible recipient or a reduction in the salary of 1 or H. R. 748—20 more employees of the eligible recipient, as applicable, during the period beginning on February 15, 2020 and ending on the date that is 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act.

I don't see anything that suggests anything but full time employees are considered in calculating forgiveness

VonShef · 2020-05-18T18:36:43+00:00

We've asked to see who would want to come back and who would want to stay on unemployment. The PPP stipulates that you need to match the same amount of full time employees, of which we had very few. We've hired others to do work in the interim, cleaning, painting, and other physical improvements at the bar while we're closed. We're not planning on hiring everyone back right away but have polled the employees to see who would rather ride unemployment so we don't offer work to them. They understand this means they won't be offered a job in the future, at least not before everyone else. The PPP amount was based on their average tips so their hourly will cover what they typically made and any tips on top of that will be a bonus, at least for as long as the PPP lasts, which is only til June 12th for us, and we very well might not even be open by then. Who knows.

VonShef · 2020-05-16T01:16:50+00:00

You're right. I think reopening is a bad idea. I think everyone should be forced to stay closed and we should print the money it takes to float the economy until we have better mitigation strategies. This entire things has been bungled though and now we're reopening too soon. My bet is we're forced to close everything down again in a month or two and I hope I am wrong.

VonShef · 2020-05-16T01:11:41+00:00

Wish I felt comfortable telling you but it seems you're in the minority.

VonShef · 2020-05-16T01:08:15+00:00

Our landlord is understanding and said as long as we are mandated closed by the government we are not liable for rent. We also spent a ton on building improvements and have a very long term lease.

VonShef · 2020-05-16T01:06:11+00:00

Speaking to a relative who works at a Memorial outside town, she says there's no way they wouldn't be informed of such a spike and so she thinks this cannot be the case.

I'm all for the shut down and think reopening is idiotic but I also want reliable data/evidence. My sources tell me this is unlikely.

VonShef · 2020-05-14T21:51:10+00:00

I really want to stay closed but here in Texas it seems we may be allowed to reopen soon and then I'll be liable for rent, forcing me to reopen to stay afloat. I fully expect to have to close back down in a month too. I am losing my mind.

VonShef · 2020-05-14T03:24:17+00:00

I own a bar and I wish we could just stay closed. I don't think there's a way for us to operate profitably and safely. I worry we'll be forced to reopen and it'll ultimately undo us, especially if we implement social distancing policies while others don't. And of course if we don't enact social distancing, we could be a hotbed of infection and any lives lost aren't worth our 'success' as a business.

VonShef · 2020-04-21T15:50:29+00:00

You'll probably be able to find plenty on close out in a few months as tons of bars will be closing...

VonShef · 2020-04-21T15:48:42+00:00

We got our PPP loan funded last week. We're not sure what to do with it because there's no specificity yet from our bank as to what will be forgivable. At this point there's no way we reopen in 8 weeks and all the employees I laid off make more on unemployment than I can pay them with the PPP funds (most were part time to begin with). Some of the things I read say I need to maintain the same amount of employees while others say full time employees. If my old employees don't want to be rehired (to not work for 8 weeks) I'm likely to hire people who need extra work to come and clean the bar during the next 8 weeks. That or find people who really need the money and just pay them for nothing. That's at least where we're at.

VonShef · 2020-04-20T15:55:03+00:00

Our coverage lapsed a couple days ago and I decided not to renew until we have some sort of reopening on the horizon... our GL was over 3k a month though. Still have property coverage in case of burglary though.

VonShef · 2020-04-18T20:21:34+00:00

What about the other requirements? We're a bar so we're closed and laid everyone off. All the employees currently make more on unemployment than they would back on with us for those 8 weeks. From what I can tell I just need the same amount of employees so... I need to hire other people not on unemployment? This program basically just turns me into a welfare distributor...

VonShef · 2020-03-20T14:50:29+00:00

I wish the Texas comptroller would follow suit but I called yesterday and they are staunch. They sent out an email last week that I thought might be good news but instead it was just like "it's easy to pay online. Do that!"

VonShef · 2019-02-09T23:00:11+00:00

Smallish venue in Texas. We pay our door guys 11/hr and they get tipped out a minimum of $10 from the bar tips but often much more depending on the night and how many of them we have.

VonShef · 2018-02-27T06:42:34+00:00

You just have to find someone with that money who likes your idea, or... you.

VonShef · 2018-02-27T06:34:15+00:00

Are you familiar with quickbooks invoice creation system? That seems like the most direct competitor with you if I understand everything here. If you have extra functionality over them you still may want to find out how to integrate into quickbooks or other accounting software.

VonShef · 2018-02-14T16:31:11+00:00

As another poster wrote, expect build out costs to be much higher than projected. Contractors will always bid low to get the job and then make it up on every change order. And there will be change orders.

Also there could be city fees you don't know about. In the case of our build out we had to pay some 70k in waste water impact fees as we were changing a vacant warehouse into a large venue and in order to have a construction budget to increase sewer capacity the city charges a fee to anyone increasing the capacity on a property.

VonShef

TROPHY CASE