Gary Doesn’t Pay

The song ‘2300 Jackson Street’ which was written by Michael’s brothers and performed by the Jackson family, including Michael, is being used by the City Of Gary who play the song, when they put phone callers on hold. But they may be using the song without permission as they are required by law to obtain consent from the music publisher to use the song. There has been no record found at this time of any permission being granted. The Jacksons’ tune is among Broadcast Music Inc.’s 6.5 million-work repertoire, which it licenses out to thousands of businesses and other entities.

BMI is a performing rights organisation, a union that collects and distributes royalties on behalf of artists from entities that use their music. A spokesman for BMI, Jerry Bailey, said Gary does not have a license to use BMI’s repertoire, including ‘2300 Jackson Street’ but, that they would “prefer to work with the city to compensate copyright owners.”
If Gary was asked to start paying, Mayor Rudy Clay said he did not expect the city would continue using the song. “I’m not saying ‘no,'” Clay said, “but, I doubt it.”

Source: nwitimes.com & MJWN