Do you have a business that plays music - read this

windeguy

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Jul 10, 2004
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Frank12 posted this on FB:

This is being delivered to all RNC businesses around the island. Starting next month, every business that plays music and has an RNC number, will get a notice where they have to pay $2000 pesos a month (around US $40). This is sort of like what North American restaurants & bars have pay to ASCAP and BMI for the right to play Copyrighted music inside a business. They have started delivering these notices to all RNC businesses here on the island.
Let's do the math...the guy delivering the notices said that around 40 to 50 businesses just in Cabarete were receiving the notices--including the gas station! In Santiago, he said it was several hundred businesses. In Santo Domingo, it would be several thousand businesses. Around the entire island, how many businesses have an RNC number and play music? They could be soon collecting several hundred thousand dollars a month around the entire island.
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joe

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Jan 12, 2016
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It's a scam that's been going on for at least three years, maybe more. Just tell the guy no thanks or like my friends tell em... fk off. They won't come around again for a while.
 

cobraboy

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Jul 24, 2004
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I had ASCAP thugs come into my bar and threaten civil action for playing live music 3 nights a week unless I paid them $950 a month.

They said it was for the musicians who play the music.

I told them I already pay the musicians 3 nights a week for playing.

They said, "No, no, for the musicians who *wrote* the music."

I refused and got served a "cease and desist" notice, followed by three ASCAP thugs showing up. I took great pleasure in tossing them out, one physically after he pushed his skinny finger into my nose. I may have broken it.

So I stopped allowing bands to play covers and only hired bands and musicians that played original music. Some of it was was just aweful, like self-published authors, and I had to stop because their horrendous sounds drove customers away (although one was awesome, a Bruce Spreensteen clone!). And those musicians who *used* to make hundreds in my bar lost those hundreds thanks to ASCAP thuggery.

I ended up just playing the juke box where the owner was paying ASCAP and bailed from the business a few months later (I was already in the MotoCaribe planning stage.)

My objections were:

1) The ASCAP fees were ridiculously high. A small % of what I paid the bands, or a flat fee per song would have been more agreeable. $950 a month was absurd for the revenue the bands brought in.

2) Their thuggish tactics p!$$ed me off.

In the end, I didn't suffer, just annoyed. The bands I used to pay $1200-1500 a week did the suffering.

A final note: these thugs claimed playing the Star Spangled Banner also counted as a "cover." Idiots.
 

windeguy

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Jul 10, 2004
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The only union I ever joined was the American Federation of Musicians. The only thing it accomplished was to make me poorer and their mafia run union richer.

Let's see what happens with the local DR businesses and if they pay.
 

sanpedrogringo

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Sep 2, 2011
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I know it makes mention to 'live' music, and CB made a reference to his jukebox, but what would the approach be to a business that plays 'piped in' music, say from an Ipod or a laptop. Would they too be exposed to this, either here or there?
 

windeguy

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I know it makes mention to 'live' music, and CB made a reference to his jukebox, but what would the approach be to a business that plays 'piped in' music, say from an Ipod or a laptop. Would they too be exposed to this, either here or there?

It most likely applies to any and all copyrighted music be it played live or otherwise generated. Very few clubs have live music these days.
 

cobraboy

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Jul 24, 2004
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I know it makes mention to 'live' music, and CB made a reference to his jukebox, but what would the approach be to a business that plays 'piped in' music, say from an Ipod or a laptop. Would they too be exposed to this, either here or there?
From what I understand the purchase of music (like a streaming service) does not give one a license to play it for commercial purposes.
 

joe

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I know it makes mention to 'live' music, and CB made a reference to his jukebox, but what would the approach be to a business that plays 'piped in' music, say from an Ipod or a laptop. Would they too be exposed to this, either here or there?

The answer is yes. One particular bar in Sosua, where they pour a mean cocktail, uses an Ipod for there music, was just approached by these jokers for a payoff. Like I said before the bartender just tells them to shove off, which has worked in the past. We all thought it was a scam. We'll see what happens.

Jeezus Christ does the bull**** never cease in this third world banana republic.
 

sanpedrogringo

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Sep 2, 2011
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Easy money to be made on this scam because every business here in DR plays music as such. From the colmados, to the furniture stores, to the car washes, to the bars...etc, etc, etc. Are they just targeting expat businesses, or Dominican locations as well? It's pouring cats and dogs here today in SPM, so I won't be able to venture out to Juan Doilo and inquire until tomorrow.
 

Olly

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Mar 12, 2007
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Windy - one thing that strikes me about Frank's letter is that it is not signed nor has its STAMP ! So I would think this is a scam. If it is official is should be signed and stamped . And it does not have YOUR RNC number on it either !!!

Olly and the Team
 

william webster

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Jan 16, 2009
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I can tell you that when I play Pandora in the US if I play it on more than one unit...multiple rooms..
They warn me and tell me not to....they mention 'No Commercial Use' 
 

Abuela

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May 13, 2006
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Windy - one thing that strikes me about Frank's letter is that it is not signed nor has its STAMP ! So I would think this is a scam. If it is official is should be signed and stamped . And it does not have YOUR RNC number on it either !!!

Olly and the Team


I see the RNC# right under the banner of the letter.
 

sanpedrogringo

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Sep 2, 2011
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Ya...good luck to them trying to fleece the colmado owners.

I see some colmado/carwash/bar owner reaching under the counter and pulling out a machete chasing these scammers away. Don't know if foreigners can get away with that.
 

Seamonkey

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Oct 6, 2009
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It's not a scam. It's been a law for years, but they only enforce it periodically. When they entered my bar I told them that I only played rock music and nothing Dominican and they said "ok" and left. Many of the Dominican bars on Pedro Clisante such as Las Flores and Mamajuana were paying 800 pesos a month.
 

sanpedrogringo

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Sep 2, 2011
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My question regarding the piped in music is that I've noticed in New York most establishments have done away with the jukebox systems, and have been relying more and more upon the establishment's house Apple Ipod, or simply have one that overrides the other when in or not in use. (That's a plug for Robert with Apple...LOL). This has been ongoing for years. Here in the DR, I've noticed that most of the music from establishments is pumped out from laptops, with somebody within the house acting as the 'DJ'. Most places have told me "go ahead, play whatever you want", and then you see that their music connection is YouTube videos, or other type of internet based amateur DJ mixing programs. I really can't see anybody coming after these people to pay monthly dues, either here or there.
 

sanpedrogringo

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Sep 2, 2011
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It's not a scam. It's been a law for years, but they only enforce it periodically. When they entered my bar I told them that I only played rock music and nothing Dominican and they said "ok" and left. Many of the Dominican bars on Pedro Clisante such as Las Flores and Mamajuana were paying 800 pesos a month.

It has to be the same selective enforcement as food and health inspectors in the States. If this was the case areas like the Malecon in San Pedro would not be playing music all day and night. Then again, there could be an under the table agreement in place. The casetas in San Pedro do have a "Caseta Rights Organization" that is loosely equivalent to the old carting business, or shall I say, waste management business in New York and New Jersey.
 

TropicalPaul

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Sep 3, 2013
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It isn't a scam. I own a hotel in the capital, we had them on our backs for years, really years. Eventually we went to court and we had to pay them. They settled for RD$ 1000 a month. None of this money seems to get to the recording artists, it basically goes straight into someone's pocket, but the law here says that any business that plays music has to have a licence from Sgacedom. They are extremely aggressive, I think the inspectors / collectors are paid on a commission basis and they just hounded and hounded us, sometimes five or six calls a day, as well as walking into the business and threatening staff. My lawyer actually got into a fight with them and punches were thrown. Very nasty organisation, but I think that if they are on to you to you have to pay.