Early this year, the Farmers Market Coalition (FMC) sent an email to members about music copyright laws as they apply to farmers markets. I have included that email in the body below for your reference. Lately, we’ve heard even more anecdotal reports from FMC members being contacted by ASCAP regarding potential copyright infringement. Are you one of these markets?
Whether or not you have heard from ASCAP, to determine the scope of this issue and the potential need for a task force on the topic, we need your help. Please respond to our short, four question poll, to help us understand how many markets are being contacted:
Music Copyright and Farmers Markets Poll
If you are interested in participating in a task force of other markets to consider possible options and learn how other markets have dealt with music copyright, there is an option on the form to let us know.
February’s Email:
Last fall, we started hearing from our members about organizations like ASCAP applying pressure to some farmers markets to pay licensing fees for the playing of music on site, regardless of it being an unpaid service to the community. Some farmers markets permit live music from local artists and performers without charging ticket sales or compensating the musicians. Others may pay musicians for scheduled performances, especially for a fundraiser or special event. If such musicians play copyrighted music as part of a farmers market, that market, or the hosting organization, is legally obligated to pay a licensing fee, just as shopping malls, cafes, and other stores pays licensing fees in order to play recorded music over their loudspeakers, or host performing musicians.
While farmers markets are altogether different creatures than shopping centers, the legal realities of copyright law cannot be avoided simply because our missions are lofty.
Public performance of live music is subject to different licensing than the playing of recorded, or “mechanical” music (via CD player or iPod, for example). Generally speaking, public performances are very broadly interpreted under the law and are defined as performing “at a place open to the public or at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered.”
There are two main organizations holding music copyrights: The American Society of Songwriters, Composers, Authors, and Playwrights (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI). Together, they cover at least 98% of copyrighted music currently out there. The majority of the fees collected through these licenses are paid to composers and publishers as royalties for the performance of their copyrighted works. Failure to obtain a license to perform or host the performance of copyrighted music publicly is copyright infringement under the copyright law, and subject to a civil suit in federal court.
You can learn more about these licensing organizations in this Better Business Bureau article. As this article states, buying a license from one performing rights organization, however, does not protect a business from liability for unauthorized performance of songs in another organization’s repertoire.
When we first approached ASCAP and BMI, we quickly learned that there was no formal licensing structure that really fit farmers markets. Both ASCAP and BMI, however, liken farmers markets with standard retail stores, and will readily provide those rate schedules to you. For your convenience, we have included links to them below.
BMI’s retail store licensing rates and details are linked here in the FMC Resource Library
ASCAP’s retail store licensing rates and details are available here in the FMC Resource Library
Since then, however, we have found that the charity concert venue license, while not entirely applicable to farmers markets, may be an appropriate avenue for some situations in farmers markets, which are more closely aligned with community fairs than a malls or bars. This licensing structure can be applicable as long as any proceeds generated by such an event are contributed to a charity other than the licensee.
Now, here’s the good news. If you want to avoid ASCAP and BMI fees altogether, we recommend that you simply incorporate the following language in the form of a signed agreement with any music performers playing at your market:
“I am aware of U.S. Copyright Law and fully respect its authority with regard to the playing of live music. I hereby certify that any music played at ___ Farmers Market is of my own authorship or in the public domain.”
Simply telling musicians not to play copyrighted works is not adequate if indeed they do play copyrighted works. Both ASCAP and BMI have investigators who visit venues playing music (live or recorded) and identify music included in the works held by their employer. If identified, then ASCAP or BMI will contact the venue about the copyright violation and make them aware of the penalties for violating the Copyright Act. Of course, if none of the songs performed are within the respective BMI or ASCAP libraries of licensed works, then there is no issue. Simply playing music is not a copyright violation that can be enforced unless the work is protected, i.e. duly registered with the Copyright Office, and assigned to ASCAP or BMI.
Songs that are considered in the public domain in the United States include those published in 1922 or earlier or were published by the author without a copyright notice, which is denoted by a © symbol Until 1978, publication without the notice automatically placed the work in the public domain. Likely, there are a lot of music compositions out there that fell into the public domain and were never registered or renewed. This site, the Public Domain Information Project, may be a good resource for those looking for public domain music, though you should be aware that it does not include any works that are in the public domain for failure to follow the Copyright Act. Likewise, most traditional Irish, Scottish, Appalachian music will be in the public domain, even if more recently recorded versions of such music does in fact have copyright protection. Playing mechanical recordings of such copyrighted versions via CD over loudspeaker, for example, is subject to copyright infringement.
Your best defense in copyright issues, in the absence of a formal rate structure for farmers markets, is common sense. A guitarist whom you have explicitly asked to play “Stairway to Heaven” at the market would raise red flags for the licensing organization that holds that song’s copyright (ASCAP, in that case). A musician showing up and playing the fiddle for tips at your market’s entrance, unsolicited by the market, is most likely not your problem.
Rest assured that the Farmers Market Coalition will continue to explore ways in which our members can affordably adhere to their legal responsibilities. However, we do not have the staffing capacity or copyright expertise to serve as a middleman between you and these copyright organizations, and we recommend that you direct any questions about your specific situation to the music licensing organizations yourself, or to a qualified lawyer. Here are the contacts we’ve been talking with at ASCAP and BMI:
Michele McKinney, Licensing Manager at ASCAP: 888-852-1432 or mmckinney@ascap.com
Jack Flynn, Executive Director, Licensing – Key Accounts, BMI®: 615-401-2849 or jflynn@bmi.com
Please note that none of us in the Farmers Market Coalition are lawyers, and the legal wordsmithing in this email was possible because of Rex Stratton, an intellectual property lawyer in Vashon Island, Washington. Thanks, Rex for your pro bono support of farmers markets, and thanks to the Washington State Farmers Market Association for introducing me to Rex!
by Elizabeth Comiskey, Farmers’ Market Coalition
The latest Farmers’ Market Directory is out from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and there are 1,000 new ones in the mix. That brings the total to 7,175 markets in operation throughout the United States, 17 percent more than last year.
“The remarkable growth in farmers markets is an excellent indicator of the staying power of local and regional foods,” said Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan, in a statement. “These outlets provide economic benefits for producers to grow their businesses and also to communities by providing increased access to fresh fruits and vegetables and other foods. In short, they are a critical ingredient in our nation’s food system.”
The reporting is voluntary between April 18 and June 24, so not all markets may be represented. The directory was released to mark National Farmers’ Market Week on Aug. 7-13.
Officials say the interest in markets has spread since 2010 beyond the far West and Northeast states, where popularity is established. Alaska and Texas had the most growth at 46 and 38 percent respectively.
Ohio comes in the top 10 states for new markets with 278 markets in the directory. The top 10 states for markets include: California (729 markets), New York (520), Michigan (349), Illinois (305) and Ohio (278).
The directory is available at http://farmersmarkets.usda.gov.
Sources: MEREDITH COHN, The Baltimore Sun (Maryland); USDA http://farmersmarkets.usda.gov.
Stearns Homestead farmers’ market in Parma has a excellent opportunity for homemade bread and pies at it’s Saturday Farmers’ market. If interested-please call Debbie at 440-882-6234
Parma is in Cuyahoga County in NE Ohio.
NORTHEAST OHIO FARMERS MARKET opens April 15, 2012. The I-71 rest area is the location and 2000 cars and 1000 trucks pass by EVERY hour. Contact Robert McCafferty at 330-225-5227 if you’re interested.
The Farmers Market Management Network of Ohio celebrates National Farmers’ Week August 7th – 13th, 2011 by highlighting the accomplishments of our markets in Ohio. Our Ohio Farmers’ Markets are achieving their missions by improving community health, boosting the local economy and building a sense of community identity through a shared social space.
Our Featured Ohio Farmers’ Markets:
 
Wyoming Avenue Farmers’ Market acomplishes it’s mission with an all-volunteer organization. Read their story.
Easton Farmers’ Market Innovates customer convenience with their refrigerated Veggie Valet. Read more.
Find a Farmers’ Market near you. View FMMN Member Directory or Search Ohio Proud’s listings of Markets www.ohioproud.com
Ohio Farmers’ Markets are getting creative when it comes to serving their customers. At Easton Farmers’ Market in Columbus, Ohio customers can store their fresh market purchases in a refrigerated trailer, and go to dinner at one of many excellent restaurants or shop at the many adjacent retailers. Their purchases will be held until one hour after the market closes, that’s until 8 pm. Customers can drive up the to the Veggie Valet and pickup their purchases conveniently from their car.
The refrigerated Veggie Valet was established 6 days before the market’s opening with the help of Jeff Morris of www.Allacart.com. All A Cart donated the majority of the cost to the Easton Community Foundation for it’s use during the market season.
The free service has received positive feedback from customers. According to Maybruck, “The Easton customer loves it. They can shop at both Easton and the Market and not worry about carrying their produce around.”
The Easton Farmers’ Market runs June 2 – September 29, 2011
Every Thursday 3-7pm
For more information visit the market online at: www.eastonfarmersmarket.ORG
Visit their facebook page
Contact:
Heidi A. Maybruck
Market Manager
Easton Farmers Market
614.861.1718
614.864.3231 Fax
info@eastonfarmersmarket.ORG
The Farmers Market Management Network of Ohio celebrates National Farmers’ Week by highlighting the accomplishments of stand-out markets in Ohio. The Wyoming Avenue Farmers Market is achieving their mission bolstering the local economy, improving community health, and bringing diverse groups of people together through a shared social space.
Wyoming Ave. Farmers’ Market is a non-profit, producer-only, volunteer-run business committed to offering local, consumable products to our neighbors. Our Market carries organic and sustainably-raised fruits, vegetables, eggs and meats, and carefully produced cottage products. All products are produced with integrity and transparency. Our customers are locavores and local residents who like to build relationships with people who raise the food they serve to their families.
Wyoming Ave. Farmers’ Market is located in downtown Wyoming, Ohio, at the intersection of Wyoming and Oak Avenues at the Village Green. Our Market hours are 3 pm – 7 pm, Tuesdays, May through October. During the winter months, we operate a pre-order market.
The City of Wyoming is a suburb of Cincinnati. Wyoming is a residential community with a small, but growing business district.
Innovative Community Partnerships
We are currently working with Hamilton County Public Health, Community Health Services, to build a program to increase SNAP/EBT redemption at farmers’ markets as part of their program to reduce childhood obesity. Together, we are partnering with faith-based organizations in several surrounding communities to not just bring EBT shoppers into the market, but to also give them confidence and tools to cook healthy meals with the new foods they are likely to find at the Market. We’re hoping to partner with retailers to help supply basic cooking equipment to participants as they progress through the program. This year we are working with the Children’s Hunger Alliance and a focus group to ensure that when the program is implemented next year it will have a positive impact.
The Market implemented SNAP/EBT acceptance in 2008 with our own funds. While we feel that this service is very under-utilized, we have been working with local agencies to help increase awareness of its availability. We have worked with Valley Interfaith Food and Clothing Center to educate their counselors about the benefits for clients when they use their Ohio Direction card at the market; take-away materials are available for all clients. We have also translated our take-away materials into Spanish and worked with Su Casa, a program of Catholic Charities SouthWestern Ohio, in an effort to assist in their health promotion services.
Farm to Table Producer-Only Integrity
Farmers are visited twice a season. We walk the fields; review seed orders; discuss soil health, natural amendments, and crop rotation. We see where cows are milked, the hogs and chickens are foraging, the herds are pastured, and the donkey and goat offer protection from predators.
Cottage vendors are visited when they join the market with follow-up visits as necessary. We watch as the soap is “cooked”, coffee beans are roasted, dough is made, honey is collected, gelato is churned. We document our trips with photos that are posted on our website and displayed in a book for browsing by market shoppers.
Economic Impact
When we were planning the Market, we purposely selected Tuesday as it was a day that most merchants said was one of their slowest. We are now bringing an average of 350 people into the downtown business district each Tuesday. While anecdotal, many of the downtown merchants have indicated that on Market Tuesdays they have noticeably increased traffic in their stores. Also, this year we started a monthly “Around Town” section in our newsletter as a venue for local businesses to highlight their activities and specials. Our electronic newsletter reaches over 1700 email addresses a week.
Since our opening in 2007, each week we have counted our shoppers. Beginning in 2010, we started collecting gross receipts from vendors each week to establish our sales baseline. We have performed several calculations based on this information and look forward to comparing year-over-year numbers at the end of the season. Along with this information, we are tracking contributing factors such as media coverage, weather, and other factors that can impact shopper attendance and vendor sales.
We are scheduled to conduct dot surveys the weeks of July 19 and September 13. We will be collecting information about the shopping habits of our shoppers.
A Small Business Incubator
Farmers: One of our vendors has returned to their farm roots and assumed ownership of family property; they have diversified the farm from commodity crops to include livestock as well as market produce. Their move toward sustainability is beneficial not just for the environment and land, but also preserves an economically viable farm life for their families. Two of our family farms have transitioned to sustainable / organic and are in their fourth year. Locust Run Farm has been certified organic since 1986 and That Guy’s Family Farm has been a certified organic farm since 1998; they continue to grow their business through their participation in WaFM.
Cottage producers: Donna’s Gourmet Cookies and La Terza Artisan Roasterie have grown their business from home-based operations to businesses housed in dedicated commercial spaces. Five Star Foodies utilized our market to help grow their customer base and are now distributing their vegan products throughout the eastern US.
Engaging Children
We take advantage of the weekly opportunity to engage children.
The first market of each season features Gorman Heritage Farm, a non-profit, working farm and outdoor education center. Gorman talks with the kids about barnyard animals and gives them an overview of life on the farm. This event includes a selection of animals visiting the market. The kids love our on-site petting zoo.
This year we have planted a demonstration garden so that the kids can see what their food looks like when it’s still on the farm. They will be helping to water, weed, and harvest the garden throughout the summer.
Each week we offer “tattoos” for the kids. A stamp featuring a market product that is in season is selected by one of our regular kid-shoppers.
Cooking demos with samples of market food are another way that we engage the kids. From easy after-school snacks to innovative ways to eat raw peas (“just open the zipper”), we are demonstrating that healthy foods can be fun. When apples come into season, our orchardist’s tent is overflowing with kids selecting their favorite varieties.
Civic Engagement and Volunteerism
Wyoming Ave. Farmers’ Market is all about civic engagement and volunteerism. We are a volunteer-run, non-profit business launched by a group of interested Wyoming residents. The group believed that a market would be an important addition to our town for many reasons: to support sustainable agriculture in our local area; to serve as a venue for new businesses; to support the downtown business district; and to create a weekly gathering space for community members.
Two of the initial organizers have become the General Manager and Vendor Coordinator handling all the day-to-day managerial, promotional, organizational, financial, and on-site needs of the market. While this requires over 40 hours a week, it is all done without pay or compensation. When the primary organizers are unavailable for a specific market day, other volunteers step up to assist. In a given year, approximately 30 volunteers contribute to the success of the market.
We have plenty of space to host an event – we’re adjacent to the Village Green with lots of room for media and additional tents. We are also fairly certain that we can engage the downtown business district to join the festivities.
For more information on the Wyoming Ave. Farmers’ Market visit their website at: www.wyomingfarmersmarket.net
Visit the Wyoming Ave. Farmers’ Market on Facebook
The Farmers Market Coalition is highlighting markets across the country for their contribution to their local economies, community education and quality of life. See those stories.
A recent NPR-Thomson Reuters Health Poll, of more than 3,000 adults across the country reveals insights about their attitudes toward organic food.
When it comes to buying produce, 43 percent of people would like to get their fruits and veggies at a farmers market. Supermarkets come in second at 32 percent. And home gardens are third at 20 percent.
via Organic Foods Have Broad Appeal, But Costs Temper Demand.
Ohioans are being presented with the unique opportunity to pilot farmers’ markets at four Ohio rest areas. The four potential locations are:
- Interstate 71 at New Brunswick (mile marker 224);
- Interstate 70 in Licking County (mile marker 131 by Buckeye Lake);
- Interstate 75 in Hancock County (mile marker 153 by Findlay)
- State Route 2 on the Lorain/Erie County line.
In order to gauge interest in the program, please fill out the survey linked below. Each market will need a farm market manager so please indicate in the survey if you are interested in being that person. Each market will also need to be registered through ODA as a farmers’ market (registration is free) and each vendor will have to follow ODA’s Division of Food Safety regulations for farmers’ markets.
Click here to fill out the survey.
Please see the following notice from USDA.
Are you a fruit and vegetable grower/shipper, wholesaler, broker, retailer, processor, fresh cut processor, foodservice supplier, employee of a state agency involved in organic and non-organic fresh fruits and vegetables at local, regional and/or national levels, employee of a state department of agriculture, or trade associations regarding fruits and vegetables? And do you have ideas for how the USDA can better serve the fruit and vegetable industry?
The USDA is currently collecting nominations for the Fruit and Vegetable Industry Advisory Committee. This Committee offers advice to the USDA about pertinent issues regarding the fruit and vegetable industry and provides suggestions and ideas to the Secretary and to the Agricultural Marketing Service about how the Department’s programs can better serve the industry. The Committee is composed of 25 voluntary members chosen by the Secretary of Agriculture, and members serve 2-3 years.
Nominations are due by July 20. Information about the Committee’s functions and the nomination process is in this press release and this Federal Register Notice.
This is an important vehicle for industry members to work directly with the USDA to develop better programs. We hope that you will help us identify effective and visionary nominees for this Committee
Velma R. Lakins
Agricultural Marketing Specialist
USDA/AMS/TM/MSD
1400 Independence Ave., SW, Rm 4523-S
Washington, D.C. 20250-0269
Ph: 202-690-8103
Fax: 202-690-0031
|
Our cooperative provides Ohio farmers' markets and vendors with resources, tools, networking opportunities, and a unified voice for public policy advocacy to strengthen farmers’ markets throughout Ohio.
 The Ohio Farmers' Market Handbook: Order your copy >>
Includes a planning guide on starting a farmers' market in your community plus regulation resources and best practices for growing and running a successful farmers market in Ohio.
|
