That sounds a bit fishy to me.

I played in a private club...members only.... so yeah, they can come in on private places too....

But they asked for set lists and looked at the juke box... which also was privately owned. They base the fee on the songs and the frequency of the live acts. It's all math. how many live bands, how many songs they play in a night, and apply the formula.

So if it's thousands of dollars, they might be looking at the venue in a retroactive sense which they might actually be entitled to do by law. Kinda like when the cable company catches you stealing cable. They determine when it started and can charge from that point plus interest and late fees etc... So yeah, if they have been using live music for many years and ASCAP just found out.... it could be painful.

You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.