Quote:
Originally Posted by Choro&Swing
There are many companies that provide instrumental or vocal music of various sorts to places like doctor’s offices and dentist’s offices and stores. There is also Sirius-XM or whatever it is called which has many channels. I think that to be legal, commercial enterprises are supposed to make yearly royalty payments to either BMI or ASCAP that get distributed to the copyright holders in some unfair way. Even churches are required to pay these fees. If they don’t, they can be fined. A doctor’s office playing a local radio station without paying the fee is breaking the law. It’s possible for a company to record its own “mix tape” of favorites to be played over and over, but they are still supposed to play the fees.
(The Bible says, “The worker is worthy of his hire.” That means, “Don’t try to get out of paying a worker what you owe.” I used to have a friend who Was an NYC entertainment lawyer. Among his clients was Andrew Lloyd Webber. For years, he would often fly out on weekends to various mid-western churches, show up just before their illegal, non-fee-paying production of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” and shut down sold-out shows. The pastor would say, “But this is for Jesus! This is money for doing God’s work!” My friend would say, “Jesus would say ‘Thou shalt not steal.’” The churches then had to pay his large lawyer fees by the hour and his air fare. Churches can of course perform “Jesus Christ Superstar,” but they have to pay the fees, based on attendance. It might be a couple thousand for a weekend. Just charge an extra dollar per head. All churches that play or sing Contemporary Christian Music are also required to pay. If they are caught not paying, they are fined. A church I attended fifteen years ago was paying about a hundred dollars a year for the use of praise songs.)
Some restaurants, such as Carabba’s and Boca di Beppo, play Sinatra-style swing all the time. I LOVE that! But you can be sure they are paying royalties every year. It’s not that expensive. Say, a couple hundred dollars for a doctor’s office, I think.
(Fees are paid on all music played on SiriusXM. Actually, if you have a subscription, you help pay those fees.)
|
This is from June 2015 and the Broadcast Law Blog:
Under the Copyright Act, any business can be exempt from the royalties if they use one consumer-type audio or video player. But they can have only one such device. Under this exception, the source of the content is not an issue. That’s because it is assumed that the use of this device is to keep the employees entertained. But it allows for the use of only a single radio or TV.
A newer exception adopted in the 1990s goes further. This exception is based on the size of the business and it applies only when the business plays an FCC licensed radio or TV station (or cable or satellite TV programming) where the originator of the programming has paid the appropriate fees. The business that takes advantage of this exception can’t charge an admission fee. And the business must fit in one of these categories:
It has less than 2,000 gross square feet (excluding parking – but the parking area must be just used for parking – so the area around the gas pumps or other actively used outside areas would probably count toward the 2,000 square feet);
Or, if it has more than 2,000 square feet then:
If the business only plays the radio, it can have no more than 6 total speakers, no more than 4 of which can be in one room (or adjoining outdoor space)
If the business plays TV, it can have no more than 4 TVs, none bigger than 55 inches (diagonal screen size), and no more than one in any room (and there can’t be more than 6 speakers providing the TV audio, with no more than 4 in any one room).
For “food service or drinking establishments” (bars and restaurants), there are slightly looser rules, in that the square footage in 1 and 2 above goes up to 3750 gross square feet, but the limits on the number of speakers and size of the TV screen are unchanged.
Note that this exception is not limited to consumer-type radios, but the business can only play FCC licensed radio or TV (cable and satellite TV count as TV too). No CDs, no hooking up to an iTunes library and no streaming services. If a business plays any of these other services, or features live music, then they must get public performance licenses.