Whose tune are you playing? - American Society Of Parks And Recreation - Brief Article

Parks & Recreation, August, 2002

You may have followed the continuing saga of Napster without ever thinking how its issues related to parks and recreation. But whose music do you play at your festivals, fireworks, concerts in the park, community centers, dances, aerobic classes? How about the tunes in your elevators or phone service? Last year, the International Municipal Lawyers Association and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) reached agreement on the terms of a model performance license for local governments.

For a small annual fee, the license grants music users the right to perform any or all of the 8 million copyrighted musical works in the ASCAP repertory as often as they like. Until recently, making sure you had permission to boogie was burdensome. Now you don't really have an excuse not to be legal.