Evening star., 1940-12-22

tabished publishing houses which
do not belong to A. S. c. A. p, and
90 by assembling public domain"
music, or music on which basic
copyrights have expired, and maxi
ing new arrangements to replace
modernized A. S. c. A. P. arrange
ments.
For the past several weeks B. NJ I.
has been enlisting the support of
radio stations in plugging B. M. I.
numbers to help place as many of
them as possible in the hit class by
the end of 1910.
The whole idea behind B. M. l.,
according to Mr.. Buck, is Ito ter
rorize and intimidate A. S. C. A. P"
Still another point on which the
broadcasters criticize A. S. c. A. P.
has to do with the A. S. G. A. P.
membership requirement of uve
songs published by any author or
composer applicant. The broadcast
ers assert that many authors and
composers are unable to break into
"the closed circle" of A. S. C. A. P.
even after publishing five songs, that
in reality A. S. C. A. P sis private
club which has gained control of a
small but important group of Ameri-
can song writer's"
Refutes Argument.
Mr.. Buck refutes this argument
as follows:
"A. S. c. A. P. does not accept
amateurs to its membership and
never has. This is an organization
of creators of proven ability. Our
reason is obvious. We sell a license
to use useful music. We represent
that our repertoire contains useful
music. We are not experimenting
with the musical quality of the pro-
grams of our licensees. We are CIV
ing them the product of proven
creators and We would regard it as
indeed an imposition to attempt to
sell license for unproven material.
The A. S. c. A. P. repertoire, includ-
ing music of the past and present
and of all countries, is music in
every case proven by popular &C
claim, and not by private judgment,
as being desirable and popular"
Both N. A. B. and A. S. C. A. p,
insist that the other will have to
give ground once the situation is
brought to head after January /.
"A. S. c. A. P. is Sitting its own
throat" said Mr.. Miller. Their
revenues will be curtailed drastically
and they will lose more and more
composers and publishers if they
allow the situation to remain dead
locked. Their strategy has proved
to be a boomerang. Network affili-
ated stations at once realized that
| If A. S. c. A. P. demands were
accepted they would have to paw
more, in the long run, for their
music instead of less, as A. S. C. A.P.
contended. That 71a per cent Of
gross income cut that A. S. c. A. P.
demanded of networks naturally
would increase the costs to the in
dividual network members. Opposi.
ton to A. S. G. A. P. has been solidi-
fed rather than divided by A. S.
G. A. P.'s proposed contracts"
Mr.. Buck, on the other hand, con-
tends that it is the broadcasters
and their advertising revenues that
will be hurt more seriously if A. S,
G. A. P. music remains of the air.
"Broadcasters will soon find out
something that canny radio adver-
tisers already know-that they can't
keep radio audiences tuned in if
they reduce the quality of their mu-
sical entertainment. The public
won't be satisfied with radio pro-
grams consisting mainly of music
more than so years old and modern
songs mostly of an inferior quality.
Phonograph sales and musical mo-
ton picture audiences would increase
greatly at the expense of radio, and
radio advertisers won't stand for 1t.
N. A. B. hasn't a chance in the world
to win this fight"