Actually, you would only be subject to suit if you didn't pay the license fee. The law creates compulsory licenses. Rather than have to negotiate with every artist every time you wanted to sing a song, you pay a compulsory license (a performance license or a recording license) and the artist gets a cut of anything you make off the sale or performance.
There was a good article about this on CNBC last September:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/38990831/Trib...ne_Is_it_Legal

