Years ago, when I was a regular performer at Ireland's Own in Alexandria, VA, the ASCAP/BMI guys came in and told the owner, Pat Troy, that he had to pay the ASCAP/BMI fees.

Hard-nosed Irishman that he is, Pat bluntly refused and told them that his performers only did traditional Irish music.

The boyos came in to a couple of my shows and another guy's performance, armed with notepad and cassette recorder. Unbeknownst to us, of course.

Well, myself and the other performer don't do 100% Irish trad; we throw in covers, parodies, requests and anything else we can think of.

So having taped our shows and noted all the non-trad cover songs, they came back to the owner with the evidence.
After a bout of yelling and cussing and threats of lawsuits back and forth, Pat agreed to pay the fees.

I believe the fees are based on capacity, but I may be wrong.

A bar/club/restaurant also has to pay even if they don't have live music. A juke-box, CD player, boombox, radio and TV requires the permit too.

Peace, the well-known performer who sang your song is not required to pay you for singing it at festivals, clubs or on radio and TV. It is the responsibility of the venue to send ASCAP/BMI a song list, and then ASCAP/BMI are suppose to pay you.

The well-known performer IS obligated to pay you royalties if he RECORDS your song. I hope does, and that you make a million, or at least a few grand - you deserve it, man.

Hope this helps.

Seamus