I don't pay BMI a dime. Can't speak for ASCAP or SESAC, but BMI is free (for writers anyway) to belong to.
Of course the RIAA still collects royalties from radios, pubs etc, for music by artists who don't belong to them. The amount of jumping through hoops to opt out is rarely worth the money you save. And they could sue you into ground before you can prove your innocence.
NO, the RIAA does not collect from those people, Performance Rights Org's do (BMI, ASCAP, SESAC, etc) - they only represent, collectively, the people who actually write the songs that radio stations, pubs etc. make money off of. The RIAA is made up of the record labels (and at one time they also did useful things like setting standards for mastering EQs so that all equipment and labels product could work together).
Performers (and record labels) get no performance royalties at all in the US (and because we don't collect it, US artists don't get what foreign artists do when played abroad). That would be what the RIAA would be looking for if they were allowed to. They only get $$ from sales.
Opt out = don't use music in your business.
If you play music to attract customers you owe the people who created that music a portion of revenue.
If you use a MUZAK style service, you pay them (and they pay the writers).
Unfortunately the laws simply allowed the process to be out-sourced to collectives instead of taking it on themselves. Nobody questions that you need to pay a liquor license if you want to have a legal bar, but lots of folks open up bars and coffee houses, etc. never realizing that they are legally obligated to pay a license if they use music in their business. If it were like a liquor license it'd just be one of those things everyone would know to deal with instead of several different groups. Radio at least "gets it" and you aren't likely to come across many commercial radio stations that don't have up to date stickers from the PROs.
I'm a member of BMI, and it took me a long time to come to grips and join. I don't like that venues have a hard time with them (and they are still tied to formulas that make more money for the big dogs than anyone else) but as a songwriter I have no choice but to join one or leave possible money on the table that I'm entitled to. I'm NOT in any way affiliated w/ the RIAA though, I've decided I'd rather have 100% of a tiny amount than get a tiny percent of a larger amount.
Wrote a song about it. Like to hear it? Here it Goes:
Zombie Love Song (If anyone eats my brains)
http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/2759032
It's your basic boy is about to marry girl, she dies in a tragic car accident, but is brought back to him by the zobiepocalypse type thing.
This is a live recording - I have a better one in the works complete w. zombie chorus.
It's the verb: literarily a right to copy.
Stupid auto correct: literally not literarily
It's the verb: literarily a right to copy.
Give a man a fish you've made a customer, teach a man to fish you've made a competitor.
Politics: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage. -- Ambrose Bierce