The American Society of Composer, Authors and Publishers, or ASCAP, filed infringement suits Tuesday against four separate radio groups.
The groups are Haugo Broadcasting, which includes three stations near Rapid City, S.D.; Spoon River Media, which includes four stations in Illinois and Indiana; Taylor Communications, which includes WOXD(FM) in Oxford, Miss., and the former Barry Lunderville Radio Broadcast Group stations in northern New England, which are now under the Radio New England Broadcast Group.
In a release, the performance rights organization said the suit is against the groups for a “continued failure to comply with U.S. copyright law” by broadcasting its songwriter and publisher works without a license “for the past several years,” despite what ASCAP said has been a repeated effort to work with the groups.
“Having exhausted all alternatives, ASCAP had no other choice than to terminate each broadcaster’s license and proceed with litigation,” the organization said.
Radio World has reached out to each of the broadcast groups for comment.
Stations must pay performing rights organizations royalties — BMI and SESAC, in addition to ASCAP, in order to play on the terrestrial airwaves music from the artists those organizations represent.
ASCAP said that most stations across the U.S. license the music they use through an agreement between ASCAP and the Radio Music Licensing Committee, or the RMLC, which provides industry-negotiated blanket licenses to radio stations.
Those ASCAP rates are typically not made public but usually reflect a percentage of the station’s gross revenue. ASCAP and the RMLC announced a higher rate payable by approximately 10,000 commercial stations last year.
ASCAP represents approximately 1.1 million songwriters, composers and music publishers.
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