# Gigging Musicians playing Covers Question



## StratCat (Dec 30, 2013)

Do gigging musicians who are playing covers need to be registered with an association that manages royalties?


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

There is some noise about that in the US; not sure about up here. Something about the venue having to pay a fee as well.


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## player99 (Sep 5, 2019)

I think it's more regulated if you are doing union gigs.


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

I know quite a few local musicians here in Ottawa and have been a member of a number of cover bands and never was there any discussion about paying someone for playing covers. To be honest, musicians playing covers are the least concern of artists these days.


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

player99 said:


> I think it's more regulated if you are doing union gigs.


Union gigs?? There is still such a thing? What union? The union that takes your money and do nothing. LOL


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## player99 (Sep 5, 2019)

Chito said:


> Union gigs?? There is still such a thing? What union? The union that takes your money and do nothing. LOL


Yes but if you play some radio and TV gigs it's all done through the proper channels. Like CBC for example. I was playing guitar for a show that was broadcast live across the country and I had to pay a premium to the union as a non union player. I think after my fees were subtracted I got a check for $27.

I'm pretty sure they would pay the proper fees for any music licences required.


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## Peel Ferrari (Jun 22, 2017)

Its up to club and event organizers to submit songs to Socan. You dont need to.


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## slag banal (May 4, 2020)

From the ASCAP site: “Some people mistakenly assume that musicians and entertainers must obtain licenses to perform copyrighted music, or that businesses where music is performed can shift their responsibility to musicians or entertainers. The law says all who participate in, or are responsible for, performances of music are legally responsible. Since it is the business owner who obtains the ultimate benefit from the performance, it is the business owner who obtains the license. Music license fees are one of the many costs of doing business.”


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Chito said:


> Union gigs?? There is still such a thing? What union? The union that takes your money and do nothing. LOL


They also are required to get your work visa to legally play internationally


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## Granny Gremlin (Jun 3, 2016)

No. The venue ostensibly does - like to play music and have DJs etc when you're not playing there. It gets murky in alternative venues (not a bar/club/restaurant/banquet hall), but you'll get away with it. It's not like Brian Adams/Celine Dion/Metric need the money anyway, and that's were it'll go (vs whoever you are actually covering). The distribution of those funds is just like the levy on blank tapes and CDs back in the day (and still, just nobody's buying those as much).

TLDR: don't worry yourself about it.


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## bzrkrage (Mar 20, 2011)

StratCat said:


> Do gigging musicians who are playing covers need to be registered with an association that manages royalties?


I paid for APRA license during my early DJ years. I was earning a good chunk 'o change, so worth the licence fee. I think it was about $120 a year.


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## Permanent Waves (Jun 2, 2020)

slag banal said:


> From the ASCAP site: “Some people mistakenly assume that musicians and entertainers must obtain licenses to perform copyrighted music, or that businesses where music is performed can shift their responsibility to musicians or entertainers. The law says all who participate in, or are responsible for, performances of music are legally responsible. Since it is the business owner who obtains the ultimate benefit from the performance, it is the business owner who obtains the license. Music license fees are one of the many costs of doing business.”


Exactly. People often asked us if we were either licensed by or paying royalties to Rush to play their music, but the reality is, SOCAN manages collecting royalties from the parties that are making money from it and re-distributing to the original artist. That onus is on the business owner, not the musician. There is a different tariff scale depending if you are a radio station, DJ, karaoke, strip club, special event, on-hold music, etc. For live music, that is 3% of what the establishment pays the band (https://www.socan.com/tariff/Infocard_3A_EN.pdf) 

I am not sure how many establishments actually do this. I know locally a lot of establishments used to skirt this as much as possible. Back when Eugene Haslam ran the bookings at Zaphod Beeblebrox, he specifically would not hire cover bands because he did not want to be on the hook for SOCAN fees. When we played Barrymores (back when they actually still had live bands that did not have to pay to play) they actually had us sign a release form stating that the band was responsible for Socan fees, which I doubt was a legit move.


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## player99 (Sep 5, 2019)

Now it should be called Barrylesses.


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