National licensing group sues Matthews restaurant for refusal to pay music royalties

Editor’s note: This story was updated on June 8, 2023, with comment from the tavern owner

A major music licensing group is suing Moochie’s Tavern in Matthews over claims of playing copyrighted music without paying.

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) claims to have contacted the restaurant more than 50 times to fix the issue over several years, but the owner refuses to pay the licensing fee. Now, ASCAP is taking legal action to receive the delinquent royalty money it says it is owed and sign a licensing agreement with Moochie’s.

The songs named in ASCAP’s complaint are “Pony” by rap artist Ginuwine, “Crazy Bitch” by rock band Buckcherry, and “Gypsy Road” from the band Cinderella, which were all played by a live cover band at Moochie’s on Feb. 18, according to the document.

The plaintiffs in the complaint are W Chappell Music Corp., WC Music Corp., Herbilicious Music, Lit Up Music and Chappell-Co Inc.. As members of ASCAP, each receives royalties paid by establishments like Moochie’s that want to play its songs. Failure to do so is copyright infringement.

The restaurant’s owner, Jean-Pierre Kossisyan is named in the complaint. He did not return messages left for comment Wednesday.

On Thursday, he told the Observer this was the first he’s heard of the lawsuit, and that ASCAP has not contacted him since 2021.

“They contacted me in, maybe, May of 2020 about paying their fees or whatnot for live music,” Kossisyan said. “At the time, we had just been able to open up to about 25% capacity from COVID.”

Moochie’s usually hosts live music. But it was only hosting music bingo at this time due to COVID restrictions. Kossisyan said he shouldn’t have to pay the full licensing fee because his restaurant was not operating at it’s full capacity.

“I just quit answering their calls because I’m like, ‘Why are you coming at me for the full amount of costs when we were technically not allowed to do 100% (capacity)?’” Kossisyan said.

According to ASCAP’s records, contact attempts were made in 2022 and 2023, most recently in January, Wagener said.

The licensing team at ASCAP flagged Moochie’s because it did not pay the yearly licensing fee, which for an establishment of Moochie’s size, would be about $3,500 a year, according to ASCAP.

This fee allows the establishment to play any of the more than 18 million songs owned by ASCAP, said Jackson Wagener, senior vice president of business and legal affairs at ASCAP, in an interview Wednesday with The Charlotte Observer.

ASCAP is not seeking a specific amount of money, Wagener said. But the statutory damages paid by Moochie’s would be three to four times the licensing fee for each song.

The three songs named in the complaint were chosen to represent the issue, but more were played that violated licensing, Wagener said.

Kossisyan said he was unaware that he had to pay royalties for certain songs otherwise he would have told the bands not to play those songs.

The responsibility falls on Kossisyan instead of the cover band because the restaurant gets the financial benefit from customers coming to see live music, Wagener said in an email to the Observer.

There has been little success in establishing a dialogue between ASCAP and Kossisyan, Wagener said.

Hoping for a settlement in the ASCAP case

An investigator was sent to the restaurant to report what music was played, which resulted in the songs listed in the complaint.

“Even after we’ve taken this step of filing a lawsuit, our hope is that we’re able to speak with the establishment owners and try to reach a settlement,” Wagener said.

ASCAP is suing 13 venues nationwide, including Moochie’s, Ben’s Tune Up in Asheville and Top Dawg Tavern in Columbia for copyright infringement.

This story was originally published June 8, 2023 at 6:45 AM.