Bars, restaurants want to tune out song writers over music fees.

Philip Cummins, proprietor of Santa Monica supper club Renaissance, is one of many small-business owners fed up with two powerful music industry trade groups.

"I am looking right now at a bill they sent me for $3,200," he fumed. "It's not the dollar value that bothers me so much as the principle behind the whole thing."

Cummins is referring to the fees that owners of bars, restaurants and night clubs must pay to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and to Broadcast Music Inc. for playing background music in their establishments. Both ASCAP and BMI are trade groups which represent songwriters and publishers.

The mission of both is to collect public performance fees for its members when copyrighted material is played in any venue, whether it be on radio, in concert halls, on television, or elsewhere.

"If copyrighted music is used for commercial purposes, the songwriter and publisher are entitled to royalties," said Bill Thomas, a spokesman for ASCAP.

Relief may be on the way for owners of bars and restaurants, however. Rep. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., introduced a bill last fall in the House of Representatives that would exempt owners of such small businesses from paying ASCAP and BMI licensing fees for background music. That bill, HR 3288, is now being prepared for mark-up in the subcommittee on Intellectual Property and Judicial Administration of the House of Representatives.

Obviously, ASCAP is opposing the bill. A significant chunk of most songwriters' and music publishers' incomes come from licensing fees paid by bars and restaurants. Thomas estimated that the average songwriter would lose about 20 percent of his or her income if the bill is passed.

Thomas argued that the licensing fees are justified by the fact that music enhances the atmosphere of bars and restaurants, thereby contributing to their financial success.

"The type of music that they choose is as important as the color of the walls or the linens that they put on the tables," said Thomas. "It is pretty objectionable from our point of view that they want to use the music and pay nothing."

Restaurateurs disagreed. Background music does not draw customers into restaurants and bars, countered California Restaurant Association Executive Vice President Stan Kyker. In fact, many restaurateurs view the music fees as a tax, which pressures them to raise the price of the food and drinks they serve.

"Anything that adds to the cost of doing business for a restaurant becomes a greater cost to the customer who is eating there," Kyker said.

The California Restaurant Association has expressed support for the Thomas bill, but said the bill doesn't go far enough. Exemptions should not be limited to background music, association officials asserted.

"We are supporting even more comprehensive relief," said Kyker.

Supper club proprietor Cummins pointed out that restaurant and bar owners are not limited to paying fees only on background music.

"I am a supporter of it (HR 3288)," said Cummins whose most recent run-in with ASCAP came when he tried to install a phone system that would play music while callers were on hold and discovered that he would have to pay ASCAP to do so. "They want to charge me $75 just because I want to put in music on our hold system," said Cummins.

Again, it is not the dollar value that is so painful, but the principle, he insisted. He also said ASCAP and BMI members are already receiving fees for their music from radio stations that play their songs. He added that he pays for background music, for live music and for music played by a disc jockey.

Michael Taix, owner of Taix French Restaurant, is taking his opposition one step further. "I am going to start attacking this on the representative level," he said. "The restaurants should band together and fight these (music trade group) guys."

Taix's main complaint is that he has to pay fees to both ASCAP and BMI for use of televisions in his restaurant. Taix said the televisions have been set up in his restaurant's lounge area so patrons can view sporting events.

But ASCAP and BMI own the rights to music that airs with TV commercial breaks and during the opening segments of some sports shows. So bar and restaurant owners who turn on the tube for their customers must pay licensing fees.

Like Cummins, Taix said he is paying for something that has already been collected on. The broadcasters, he pointed out, already pay fees to ASCAP and BMI for the music used in their programming.