I just finished reading an article from TechDirt and was shocked to find out how much the yearly licensing fees are for playing music in a nightclub or a restaurant. Here is a short extract from the article:
“It wants to increase licensing fees in a 120-seat restaurant to ,344 a year — up from 5. Small cafes would be slugged with a 4729 per cent yearly increase from 4 to 60.”
Source: http://techdirt.com/articles/20090615/0329305236.shtml
For those digital signage businesses who provide their clients with a digital signage solution that plays music in the background, have you considered what legal implications are involved and what the licensing requirements are? Even if your client has paid for the music clips or videos!
In Australia, retail stores that play music – whether from the radio, purchased CDs, computers, digital signage are required to pay a licensing fee otherwise it may be considered breaching copyright laws and eventually be fined thousands of dollars.
Now we all know that music can set the mood and atmosphere in your store, nightclub, restaurant or cafe but did you know that you may have to pay a licensing fee for playing music in your business environment or anywhere in public areas? Basically, if you play music in your store you need to have a PPCA public performance license to play protected sound recordings and an APRA public performance license to play musical and literary works. For more information about this visit https://transactions.business.gov.au/BLIS/musiclicence.aspx
All I can say is, just make sure that if you’re running a business or if you’re installing a digital signage solution with audio for one of your clients make sure you mention these licencing requirements to your client otherwise they (or possibly your business) may end up paying a hefty fine – so don’t risk it.
After thinking about this situation, do you believe a license is required for playing videos of unsigned artists playing original songs from Youtube in your store or business environment?
Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but my understanding is that because these artists are unsigned (i.e don’t have a label) the PPCA, or APRA won’t be paying them one cent so why should you pay for the license fee if all you’re playing is songs from these unsigned artists. For example, here’s one of my favourite Youtube R&B groups called LEGACI playing an original song. Keep it up boys.
© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2009. |
Permalink |
No comment |
Post tags: australia, Blis, Business Environment, Business Environments, Cafes, Cds Computers, Copyright Laws, digital signage, Exact Figures, Legal Implications, Licence Costs, Licencing Requirements, Licensing Fee, Licensing Requirements, Music Background, Music Business, Music Cds, music clips, Music Radio, Music Retail, Music Videos, Performance License, Play Music, Playing Music, Public Areas, Public Performance, Retail Environment, retail stores, Running A Business, Seat Restaurant, Shtml, Signage Solution, Sound Recordings, Techdirt, Thousands Of Dollars, Truth, Unsigned Artists, Youtube
Article Source: http://www.digitalsignageblog.com/2009/06/19/the-truth-uncovered-playing-music-in-your-business-environment-is-too-expensive/
About our Sponsor:
Advertise Me is a privately owned Australian company specialising in all aspects of digital signage solutions.
Our team of highly skilled professionals is able to introduce innovative ways for businesses to communicate with their intended audiences for a variety of purposes including informing, educating, entertaining and selling.
You can expect us to:
- offer the most affordable and cost effective solutions tailored to your specific business needs.
- provide you with concise and accurate information and will ensure that you understand and are comfortable with our proposals.
- strive to make our clients happy and successful.
We have partnered with a number of key reputable organisations and will continue to build further partnerships to deliver the most effective solutions for our customers.
Digital Signage Blog – our thoughts, interesting news and articles, interviews and case studies in the digital signage industry