[78-L] Sesac transcriptions

[Michael Biel]

From: David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca>
> SESAC was one of the later transcription companies.

Not really.  It is a public performance licensing organization like
ASCAP and BMI.  It originally was formed to license European works,
hence the name Society of European Stage Authors & Composers.  Because
they had a relatively small and obscure catalog, they went into the ET
business as a way of providing the stations which bought licenses from
them with something for them to use with that license!  The discs were
always free to the stations.  For us collectors, the most important of
the discs they made were conducted by Nat Shilkret.  There are at least
20 of them, I think, 12-inch LP format RCA pressings.  But there are
many other performers who made the discs, including some important
country artists.

> All intended for radio station use, obviously..the short cuts
> were because stations often needed one minute pieces to lead
> up to newscasts or other interruptions, without having to fade
> a long piece. They might have been designed as commercial
> backgrounds as well but this would depend on whether the company
> licensed them for this purpose.   dl
 
The "Short Cut" series were mainly used as backgrounds for
advertisement.  They were part of the station's annual overall license
and could be used any way they wanted, but into the LP era they had
discs where each cut was exactly 60 seconds.  But that was only one
series that they occasionally provided.  Most discs had pieces of normal
length.

When I was a regular attender of the National Association of
Broadcasters conventions, the SESAC hospitality suite was THE place to
be.  They had the best food and they truely loved to have students and
professors in their suite, unlike some of the big industry folks. 
Because SESAC was #3, they tried harder than even #2, and they knew that
the students would be the future broadcast execs and that we professors
taught them.  Whereas most text books (or ANY book) that discusses music
licensing talks about ASCAP and BMI, few mention SESAC, therefore it was
up to us in the classroom to include SESAC in the discussion.  And I
DID.  And I am doing it now!  Thank you SESAC for providing me and many
other broadcast educators with most of the food that we ate during four
days of the conventions for many years.  And occasionally they gave out
a few discs.    

As for the 16-inchers, were these also RCA pressings?  If so, they are
datable.

Mike (free food!!!!!  free records!!!!!!!!!!) Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com  


Ron L'Herault wrote:
> > Gang,
> > On Aug. 6 I posted a message about SESAC 16" transcription disks
> > of Lazaro Quintero leading the Havana Dance Orchestra,, and didn't
> > see any responses.  Sometimes things get lost in the shuffle. So
> > just in case, does anyone know anything about these transcriptions,
> > such as why all the short cuts, who the intended audience was, the
> > date it was issued and was this the real name of the band? Thanks,
> > Ron L