SyncPoint Media

ASCAP or BMI Demand Letter

Got an ASCAP or BMI Demand Letter? What to Do Next

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by

brancatojim
in

A BMI demand letter or ASCAP demand letter is usually a licensing demand backed by a file — investigator notes, calls, songs listed. It is not the same thing as a judgment. Ottobar in Baltimore is what the file looks like after years of outreach and a karaoke night the venue thought was already covered.

On June 23, 2026, a federal magistrate ordered Ottobar to pay about $12,048.75 in statutory damages (the Daily Record’s wording: “slightly over $12,000”) plus $6,500 in attorney’s fees to BMI and three publishers (Sony Music Publishing, EMI Blackwood Music, and All Clear Music). The Daily Record (25 June 2026) headlined it at $18.5K. The Banner wrote “over $18,000.” It was not a background-stream case. BMI sued over three karaoke songs: “Take On Me,” “(I Just) Died in Your Arms,” and “Goodbye Earl.” The venue conceded liability. Magistrate Judge J. Mark Coulson entered a permanent injunction.

Owner Tecla Tesnau told The Banner: “We have licensing agreements with other agencies, and I mistakenly thought that we were completely covered. … That was incorrect.” BMI told the court it had reached out more than 30 times since 2023.

That is BMI demand letter path, taken all the way to a judgment. Most owners who get mail are earlier in the same path.

We are not a law firm and do not provide legal advice. If you mix SyncPoint with other music sources, talk with your counsel or the relevant PRO about those other sources.

What the letter usually is

Performing rights organizations license the public performance of the songs they represent. The New Mexico Restaurant Association names five U.S. PROs: ALLTRACK, ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and GMR. Each represents a different catalog. A license from one is not a license from the others.

BMI’s own FAQ says the same thing. A license from another PRO covers that PRO’s catalog only. It does not cover BMI’s. Spotify, Pandora, and Apple Music subscriptions do not provide the clearance to play those songs in a public setting:

Although your digital music subscription gives you access to an enormous catalog of music, it does not provide the necessary copyright clearance to play those songs in a public setting. Once you decide to play any copyrighted music publicly, you need permission from the copyright owners.

The venue owner — not the DJ, the band, or the karaoke host — is the one BMI licenses.

NMRA’s FAQ on “I received an email, call, or letter from a PRO” is blunt: “Most likely, yes.” Licensing is almost always cheaper than ignoring the file.

ASCAP or BMI Demand Letter

How the letter usually gets written (the pattern commercial-music vendors describe — including CloudCover’s mail guide — not a clone of anyone’s sample reply):

  1. Outreach first — mail, email, phone.
  2. An investigator visit. Agents walk in, listen, and log songs.
  3. A demand that names a catalog, sometimes specific titles and dates, and a response window.
  4. Follow-ups if nothing changes. Then, in some cases, a federal complaint.

Custom Channels hears the same owner sentence: “We got a letter, and we were confused. We just play music off the iPad behind the counter.” That iPad is often a personal Spotify account on the house speakers. Personal accounts are licensed for private listening. We already covered that in Spotify for business.

Karaoke is not a background stream

Ottobar’s three songs were karaoke in Otto Upstairs. That matters for two reasons.

First, a background-music account is not a karaoke license. CloudCover’s own letter kit says the steps they outline apply to background music played through their service — not live, not karaoke. NMRA: a background service never covers live bands, singers, DJs, TVs, karaoke, jukeboxes, or consumer apps. If any of those show up during the year, the venue still has a separate conversation with the PROs.

Second, SyncPoint does not cover karaoke, live bands, or DJs spinning other catalogs. Licensing (effective July 21, 2026) lists those as out, next to personal Spotify, YouTube, and extra locations. A SyncPoint stream or Music Pack would not have covered Ottobar’s three karaoke titles. Do not read a background subscription as a blanket for every speaker in the building.

The same split shows up in older cases, with different facts:

  • Vazzy’s Cucina (Shelton, CT, 2014): $18,000 BMI settlement over nine songs. Hartford Business reported the owner thought Muzak, cable, or a private party covered him. Afterward he bought a BMI license for about $4,500 a year.
  • The Pirate’s Den (Green Township, OH, 2016): ASCAP filed a suit that seeks up to $90,000. Cincinnati.com did not report a paid $90,000. The owner said he already had a BMI license. One song named in coverage was Michael Jackson’s “Rock With You.”

One PRO, a cable feed, or “we license with other agencies” is how Tesnau, Vazzy’s, and Pirate’s Den all described the gap. BMI’s FAQ is the short version: another PRO’s license is not enough.

More on those three files, with the live-page corrections: hidden costs of licensed music.

What to do when the letter arrives

This is operational, not legal advice. The letter is their document. Your job is to know what actually plays in the room.

  1. Read it once for facts. Which PRO. Which location. Any song titles or dates. The response date they printed. Put the envelope with the invoices, not in the junk drawer.
  2. Do not ignore the follow-ups. Ottobar’s file had more than 30 BMI contacts since 2023 before the June 23, 2026 order. A letter is earlier than a complaint. Silence is how it stops being a letter.
  3. Inventory every music source in the building. House background stream. Staff phones on aux. TVs with audible music. Karaoke laptop. Live band or DJ. Hold music. Patio speakers on a different input. Write down the device and the account, not “we just play music.”
  4. Split background from everything else. A commercial background service — including SyncPoint — speaks to its own catalog in the licensed room. Karaoke of third-party songs, live covers, and DJs of other catalogs sit outside that. So does a personal Spotify account on the floor speakers.
  5. Pull proof for the sources you already license. Invoices. The license or subscription page. The player URL. Vendors who deal with these letters say PRO agents understand invoices. That is documentation, not a courtroom strategy. Do not paste someone else’s sample reply as yours.
  6. Match the letter to the source. If the songs listed were karaoke, a background-stream invoice will not answer the claim. If they were the house stream and that stream is a licensed commercial service, the invoice is the relevant page. If they were a staff phone, say so internally so you can stop that source.
  7. Talk with counsel if sources are mixed, or if the paper is already a lawsuit. We are not a law firm and do not provide legal advice.

Statutory damages under 17 U.S.C. § 504(c) are commonly described as $750 to $30,000 per work, and up to $150,000 if willful. Those are the ranges PROs cite. They are not a bill you owe until a court or a settlement says so.

What SyncPoint does and does not do here

SyncPoint is the house-background layer only. Subscriptions and Music Packs let you play our curated catalog for commercial background / ambient playback at your licensed location without a separate PRO license for that SyncPoint music. That is not “zero PRO fines” for the whole building. It is not karaoke night. It is not a live cover set. See licensing.

Two ways to put that catalog in the room:

Streaming. A secure web player, no app, on a dedicated tablet or mini PC. Syncpoint Media Server is $14.95 per month — one site license, a genre station, 24/7, ad-free. Server Pro is $21.95 if you want a custom genre. Community is $34.95. Extra doors are site-license add-ons on the same page. Start here if the room needs music all day and the internet at the rack is solid.

Music Packs. One-time ZIP files of already curated genre sets — Smooth Jazz, Classic Ambient, Holiday Music Pack Volume 1, and the rest on packs. Each pack is commercial background / ambient at one physical location. Use a pack when Wi-Fi is weak, when you already have an in-house player, or when you want a known loop instead of a live stream. Card prices are on that page. Holiday Volume 1 is $39.95. A pack does not include the web player, and a stream plan does not include the ZIP.

A custom playlist for the venue. If a standard station or pack is close but not the room, we can build a playlist for that location — a quieter lunch mix, a house tempo, a set that matches how you actually run service. That is a made-for-you SyncPoint set, not a staff Spotify list renamed. Email [email protected] with the room and the job. The same license rule applies: SyncPoint music, one licensed location, background only.

If the letter is about a personal playlist on the iPad, stop using that account on house speakers and put a licensed source on a dedicated device — web player, no app. If the letter is about karaoke or a band, SyncPoint will not close that file. If you already run only SyncPoint in that room, keep the invoice and the licensing page with the letter and ask your counsel how to send them.

Related on this site

Sources

Bottom line

A demand letter is a file, not a verdict. Read it. Inventory the room. Separate karaoke and live from the background stream. BMI is clear that Spotify does not clear public performance and that one PRO is not the others. SyncPoint covers SyncPoint background music at the licensed location — stream it, or play a curated pack, or ask for a playlist built for the room. It does not cover Ottobar’s fact pattern.

We are not a law firm and do not provide legal advice.