Pete's BMI deal

[lee wallace <sprockethome@yahoo.com>]

I would imagine that Pete has pretty much the same
deal with BMI that any composer does - virtually
anyone that has copyrighted music can join BMI. The
original intent of BMI was to keep an accurate survey
of music played on radio, TV, and live performances,
and to make sure that the copyright holders of that
music were paid appropriate royalties for the use of
their music. For years now BMI has done this surveying
by statistical sampling, and of course their methods
of doing this have been controversial. Many composers
seem to agree that only the writers with the most
aggressive agents get paid appropriately, and that BMI
has become just another corporate demon in the music
world.
Pete's story about the '89 tour - that he had to pay
BMI for permission to use his own music, and then had
to wade through oceans of red tape to get paid for his
songs having been performed - seems to be typical of
their treatment of most composers.
                                         -LW

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