Don't be too surprised if your favorite taproom or restaurant suddenly gets really, really quiet.

No tunes from Jimmy Buffett, Johnny Cash, or Michael Jackson rocking in the background.

Crickets.

It could be that quiet soon at Villari's Lakeside Restaurant and Bar in the Sicklerville section of Gloucester Township. The local watering hole that features karaoke, bands, a lakeside bar and other favorites of revelers lost a lawsuit in federal court last week that led to a $56,100 judgment plus a bill for the plaintiff's attorney fees.

Villari's lost by default, not showing up in court at the end of a four-year scrum.

They were sued by Broadcast Music Inc., an international organization that monitors music played in just about any venue, from elevators to dance halls, to ensure the authors of the works are paid royalty fees for every time a song is played.

That quest is what led an undercover BMI worker to Villari's on a summer night in 2016 to take in the atmosphere first hand and to listen and record songs being played on a karaoke machine. Those recordings became the basis of a lawsuit in federal court alleging copyright infringement.

A federal judge in Camden ruled in favor of BMI last week and ordered Villari's to pay $56,100, or $3,300 for each of 17 songs deemed to be protected by copyrights.

A BMI executive said Friday her organization, with offices in capitals around the world, uses courts as a last resort for business owners who don't respond to "blanket licenses" mailed to public establishments across the country, and the world, issuing a fee to be paid to be in compliance with U.S. copyright laws.

"At the end of the day, we want people to understand if they are performing music in a public setting and they don't have a license already in place they need one. It's federal copyright law," said Jodie Thomas, executive director of corporate communications and media relations, from BMI offices in New York City. "BMI works very hard to proactively reach out to these business owners, and to make sure they have the necessary permission to publicly perform music."

Thomas said licenses start at as little as $370 a year. Villari's would have been charged about $6,500 yearly, court documents said.

A request for comment Friday from Villari's was not immediately returned.

An attorney for the Fairness in Music Licensing Coalition, a national advocacy group that believes BMI and other performing rights organizations need to be reined in, did respond for a request to comment.

"Some of these business owners are just so fed up," said Paul Midzak, an attorney and adviser for FMLC, based in Washington, D.C. "My colleagues tell some of these business owners to try to negotiate if you can, but at the end of the day they're going to break you in court. These cases that are going to federal court are businesses that are really tired of being extorted."

Midzak said every small business should look at cases like Villari's as something that can happen to them. He said copyright laws need to be changed to make them fairer for small businesses.

Thomas said her group redistributes 88 percent of the license fee it collects to songwriters and composers. Last year it collected $1.13 billion and distributed $1 billion.

"We never want to see the music go away, and we try to work with business owners so that music benefits everyone," Thomas said.

Midzak is not so sure.

"If all the bars and restaurants say the liability could be too high, you can't play your music here, we're literally looking at a future where live music doesn't have a future in a local bar or restaurant."

EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this story and headline listed Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen, however those artists are not represented by BMI.

Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bduhart. Find NJ.com on Facebook.Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips