COMPANY TOWN ANNEX

Bar Owners, Songwriters Reach Pact on Royalties: A group of bar and restaurant owners has reached agreement with songwriters over the contentious question of copyright royalty payments. The agreement to ask Congress for a small-business exemption from payments for bars and restaurants with less 3,500 square feet of space, came last week, after two years of start-and-stop talks between songwriters and the National Licensed Beverage Assn. For two years, bar and restaurant owners had pushed bills in Congress that provided them a blanket exemption from licensing fees for music played on radio and television. Songwriters opposed the proposed exemption, saying it destroyed their property rights.