[grc] Reporting requirements for streaming stations
Leo Babeu
lepat at lakenet.com
Tue Oct 13 15:20:45 PDT 2015
Thanks Will:
Here's my big "but" to the claim that this is an easy version of
reporting, Will:
BMI is looking not for 2-week samples every quarter (like Sound Ex),
they are looking for every song, every day, reported quarterly. This
will turn our particular community radio outfit (with FM listening
population likely well under 10,000) /microcasting station into a
stenography pool, as we have no adequate metadata reporting capability.
That's because of the challenges Zara (our automation choice, one we
made knowing its limitations) logs present for such extracting. We
selected Zara knowing about the waiver from Sound Ex, hoping to take a
year or two to get better metadata extracting automation system
(Rivendell or whatever). No one warned us of BMI's digital reporting
requirements, maybe nobody knew?
I can't understand how we're the first party to have encountered and
reported this. It seriously contradicts what I got involved with Two
Harbors Community Radio to do. This level of reporting will make a
significant part of our already limited staff's duties to be analog data
assemblers. Daily station logs and daily Zara playlist folder
assemblage already is taking up a fair amount of our very part-time paid
staff's and volunteers' time.
I realize every station hits obstacles like this, but serious legal
counsel is not at our disposal.
Do you really believe we can negotiate BMI down to something like
quarterly sample-week playlist reports? It would help greatly to know if
some other station has already accomplished that. My gut reaction to
BMI's instruction was, maybe the streaming function isn't worth it.
I then realized that would be retrograde and defeatist, but the notion
had some appeal.
Thanks all,
Leo Babeu
KTWH-LP
On 10/13/2015 4:57 PM, Will Floyd wrote:
> I agree Leo.
>
> For SoundExchange, I recommend paying the extra $100 to them to avoid
> the reporting requirement. SoundExchange requires a very specific
> format for their reporting which takes a great deal of time to achieve
> unless you run everything on automation and have detailed and clean
> meta data associated with your audio files. If you have many volunteer
> DJs it can become cumbersome to collect and format song data. Even
> good play logging software won't necessarily save you.
>
> BMI says they only require artist, title and play count, and they
> don't specify format so that may be a little easier. When I talked to
> a BMI rep about the reporting requirements for web licensing they
> seemed at least somewhat flexible. I would recommend pushing them to
> see what they will do to accommodate you.
>
> "BMI does not waive reporting requirements for smaller webcasters.
> Music Usage Reporting is how BMI is able to appropriately pay
> royalties to our affiliates based on their actual plays. Without music
> usage reports we cannot correctly allocate your licensing fees. If you
> have no way whatsoever to report, please follow up with me and we can
> work out a solution for your service. We only require artist, title,
> and number of plays for our music usage reporting, so not too many
> metrics."
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Oct 13, 2015 at 5:22 PM, Leo Babeu <lepat at lakenet.com
> <mailto:lepat at lakenet.com>> wrote:
>
> Otis: I'd love to get on board your program, but folks need to
> comprehend that without paid staff and a good metadata logging
> system, you can't easily provide either real time playlists to
> listeners or report metadata to PRO's 24/7, without an enormous
> burden on our micro station's already overworked and stressed
> staff. I dig paying artists, and I'm starting to think that if
> BMI's dictatorial oversight is the best way of getting them paid,
> we all have a serious problem. In our micro-station world, we
> appear to have few options. Remember this is our stream use BMI's
> overreaching on, where we often have 0,1,2,on a big day- 6,
> concurrent listeners.
> Leo
> KTWH-LP
> On 10/13/2015 10:06 AM, Otis Maclay wrote:
>
> just a point:
>
> music listeners want playlists. if you do playlists (like
> using the confessor) you can report anyway.
> and a point about reporting: artists actually get a check.
> when you report, your giving the artists money. different from
> PRO's which give the writer money, not the performer (unless
> the performer is the writer).
>
> reporting: gives money to deserving individual and provides
> playlist for listener.
>
> O.
>
> --------------------------
> Why not give veterans a monthly stipend when they walk in the
> door,.. THEN figure out how much they're supposed to get?
>
> On Tue, Oct 13, 2015 at 9:16 AM, Donna Dibianco
> <communityradiogoddess at yahoo.com
> <mailto:communityradiogoddess at yahoo.com>
> <mailto:communityradiogoddess at yahoo.com
> <mailto:communityradiogoddess at yahoo.com>>> wrote:
>
> Hi Leo, Usually ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and Sound Exchange
> take a
> "snapshot" of your broadcast year. They will send a notice
> asking
> your to report for a week's worth of broadcast. It's not as
> ominous as most think, especially if you are using an
> automation
> system that logs the details like Artist Name, Song title,
> Album
> and Record label.
> Donna DiBiancoStation Start-up Specialist
> 503-960-1068 <tel:503-960-1068> <tel:503-960-1068
> <tel:503-960-1068>>
> http://grc2015.net/
>
> www.linkedin.com/pub/donna-dibianco
> <http://www.linkedin.com/pub/donna-dibianco>
> <http://www.linkedin.com/pub/donna-dibianco>
> www.facebook.com/communityradiogoddess
> <http://www.facebook.com/communityradiogoddess>
> <http://www.facebook.com/communityradiogoddess>
>
>
>
> On Monday, October 12, 2015 10:22 PM, Leo Babeu
> <lepat at lakenet.com <mailto:lepat at lakenet.com>
> <mailto:lepat at lakenet.com <mailto:lepat at lakenet.com>>> wrote:
>
>
> We at KTWH-LP would like to know if other LPFM's and very
> small
> noncommercial webcasting radio stations have avoided the
> requirement to
> report music used to Sound Exchange by paying the $100
> waiver of
> reporting, only to have BMI's digital licensing arm insist on
> reports of
> music use for every minute of the broadcast year? If there
> is a method
> to avoid this onerous reporting requirement (they are
> demanding
> it, and
> are insisting we sign an 11 page agreement that doesn't
> look quite
> right
> for a streaming LPFM), we at Two Harbors Community Radio
> (THCR) would
> love to hear how it's done.
> Thanks,
> Leo Babeu
> THCR
> KTWH-LP
>
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> Will Floyd
> Technical Director | Prometheus Radio Project
> will at prometheusradio.org <mailto:will at prometheusradio.org> |
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