‘Music Police’ Track Owner of Coffeehouse

George Keenen has run afoul of the “music police.”

Keenen, proprietor of the popular City Bakery coffeehouse on Ventura’s Main Street, said Friday that he and his wife have been receiving phone calls and letters threatening a suit if they don’t license the music they play for their customers.

“Call them the music police, I love it,” Keenen laughed while mulling his latest warning.

An agent of the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers, the country’s largest music-licensing association, is on the bakery’s trail.

But the agent has offered to get off the trail for a $277 annual fee, which includes a 20% discount if Keenen and wife Mabel Chase pay in 30 days.

The problem, the couple said they have been told, is that they play music from their small home stereo as background to soothe the nerves of coffee-sipping customers and pastry bakers alike. And that the musicians who played at the bakery weekend nights were strumming other people’s copyrighted songs.

The scene of the crime is a small place, big enough for a couple of ovens, a sales counter, three family-size tables and a dais in the corner for a single musician.

Between the two stereo speakers, from which the copyrighted music is played, hangs a sign: “We Do Wedding Cakes.”

But the issue is serious. Under federal law, tested and retested in appellate courts, there are no free tunes for business owners, no matter how small their establishments.

Wherever copyrighted music is played from radios, tapes, televisions or live, fees must be paid to ASCAP, the organization representing the writers of those songs.

ASCAP has 25 district offices nationwide, including one in Woodland Hills. An agent from that office set out to find City Bakery. His territory includes Ventura County, where more than 500 businesses already hold licenses, an ASCAP spokesman said.

“One guy called while I was in labor,” said Chase, who delivered a baby boy a few hours later, on March 6.

“He called about the live music . . . but he also said we couldn’t listen to the tapes or the radio at the bakery. He said the only time you can listen to music is in your car and your home.”

A contract arrived a few days later, the couple said. Keenen read it but didn’t understand it, so he tossed it out. Then a second warning came in the mail this week.

Richard Reimer, attorney for ASCAP in New York, said he does not doubt the stories of Keenen and Chase. And he said they probably can continue to play music from their radio in the bakery.

The key legally is how many speakers they have and how far apart they are, he said. If the stereo is a setup “commonly found in the home,” then it probably can be used without a problem, he said.

In the case of the City Bakery, the contract the couple was sent required only licensing of the live entertainment, Reimer said.

Keenen said his response has been to hire only local musicians who play their own songs. And he’s removing his tape deck from the stereo. He’ll play his radio, if ASCAP says it’s OK. But, he says, he will not buy a license.