[78-L] Sesac transcriptions

[Jeff Sultanof]

Dr. Biel,

SESAC had the last laugh as you know. They now represent Bob Dylan, Neil
Diamond and any number of other high-powered music writers. It is an
invitation-only organization.

I'd love to hear the recordings that Bill Russo made for them.

Jeff Sultanof

On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 3:29 AM, Michael Biel <mbiel at mbiel.com> wrote:

> 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
>
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