Re: [ARSCLIST] ASCAP follows RIAA down the road guaranteed not to make friends

[Don Cox <doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 02/08/07, Frank Strauss wrote:

> On 8/1/07, Steven Smith, King of the House, Inc.
> <kingofthehouse@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> 
>> Again, 20 years ago, I worked with
>> a large theater chain. They were told they had to pay ASCAP fees for
>> the
>> music before and after the show. The owner of the huge Washington
>> chain,
>> instead, managed to locate a bunch of music that was in the public
>> domain.
>> He put that in all theaters. It was not very current, but he got
>> around
>> paying out money for intermission music.
>> 
>> 
> How much public domain music is there?

A vast amount, but some of it exists only in manuscripts or incomplete
copies, and the musicologists who edit and tidy up this stuff sometimes
demand royalties for their work. 

A good deal was lost in Germany in WW II, but much survives in
libraries of castles, monasteries, etc. 

There is also plenty of sheet music of rags, polkas, etc from the USA
from around a century ago. But any modern arrangements of this would not
be PD.
 
Regards
-- 
Don Cox
doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx