atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information MP3 player

John, this is a FAQ from the ASCAP website. There is plenty of license free music out there, so you are right, it may not be a biggie.

10. I want to use music-on-hold in my business. Do I need permission?

Yes. When you place a caller on hold and transmit music via your telephone lines, that is a public performance of the music. It is your responsibility to obtain permission to perform ASCAP songs from ASCAP or directly from the copyright owner. ASCAP represents tens of thousands of copyright owners and millions of songs and an ASCAP license will give you the right to perform them all.

Theory was that those on hold would be able to listen to it on their radio anyway, so no biggie.

John, I think that theory would hold for any use of radio, CDs, internet music, etc. in a business- if it were true. Unfortunately it is not and it is a biggie. That quote from ASCAP tells it like it is.

With few exceptions, no radio, no CDs, no internet music, etc. is allowed unless you pay the royalties and they must be paid to all three- BMI, ASCAP and SESAC.

An easier way is to use royalty free music, a custom production or a service such as Muzak, DMX, or a business XM or Sirius account that includes the royalty payments as part of the cost.

-Hal

All legal mumbo jumbo aside, how many of your customers have just a radio or a CD player for their MOH? We encourage our customers to get some sort of professional MOH production and include that into the sale, but, you know how some people are. "We just had this radio running for our old system, why should we spend more money, blah, blah, blah." If these organizations really wanted to enforce these royalties, they would have a big job on their hands.

Travis, I came from a small city in central KS, and ASCAP 'came to town' and was harrassing everybody. They were pretty much ignored and they gave up. But, for those of you that are really worried about it, Home on the Range and Greensleeves are in the public domain. And you can tell your Greensleeves users that the system knows when Christmas happens, and plays 'What Child Is This' during the month of December. (Same Melody) John C.

If these organizations really wanted to enforce these royalties...

They do and have been since the successful music sharing and downloading busts by Sony. Once they identify you, ASCAP, BMI or SESAC won't take legal action unless you refuse to either cease and desist or comply. I seriously doubt they were ignored, more likely the perps just changed their tune (no pun intended).

-Hal

Originally posted by hbiss:

Once they identify you, ASCAP, BMI or SESAC won't take legal action unless you refuse to either cease and desist or comply.


A local CW resturant/bar had a local group playing CW, Blue Grass, Country Rock on Friday nights....ASCAP saw the advertisement for them, notified them to cease or they'd sue, they also threatened the bar owner....so they quit. A lot of the songs are older than this country. Ain't it a crock?

Ken,
Is there more to this story? ... I thought it was all good for "cover bands" to play live music as long it wasn't recorded for re-sale. :shrug:

We had a conversation in the booth not all that long ago on my feelings with copywrite infringement and my pretty hard-line feelings on musicians and composers NEEDING to be paid for their work… I’m glad there are organizations like ASCAP out there. But that being said, I’m really puzzled why anyone would have a problem with off-air broadcast from radio stations could not be used for MOH. It’s already being transmitted out in the air for free use. Crap like that can burn people on a good cause.

I bought the Sandisk Sansa Clip 1G MP3 player, just waiting for it to come in. I will post how well it works, it didn't come with a power adaptor, but we have a spare blackberry charger that will do the trick. I think the biggest thing is to find one that plays when being plugged in to external power.
It's true that you get what you pay for, this one cost $30 bucks, so we will see.

I’m really puzzled why anyone would have a problem with off-air broadcast from radio stations could not be used for MOH.

Probably because the business gets to choose the station their customers get to listen to. The callers are a captive audiance (for what it's worth) to what the business thinks makes it look good and you don't hang up. So in reality the business is using it enhance their business.

This is the reasoning behind juke box royalties costing less. The patrons or customers get to choose what they want to listen to. If the establishment has a music system the owner chooses what the patrons listen to and that costs more because it is assumed that the music will be selected specifically to enhance the atmosphere of the business.

A local CW resturant/bar had a local group playing CW, Blue Grass, Country Rock on Friday nights....ASCAP saw the advertisement for them, notified them to cease or they'd sue, they also threatened the bar owner... so they quit.

Live performances also require royalty payments unless the performers restrict themselves to music that is in public domain or they play their own original stuff. Just because something is old doesn't mean that it is in the public domain. The original composer may be long gone but their heirs may have arranged to continue receiving royalties for each performance.

Normally it is the establishment that pays the royalties directly to BMI, ASCAP and SESAC and that covers all performances they book. It's not a lot of money and that is why you often see the BMI, ASCAP and SESAC stickers on the front doors. I guess some people want to be a hard ass and stupid, but if you run a legitimate business, like insurance it's just another business expense.

If you have any questions just go the one of the websites- BMI and ASCAP are both very informative with FAQs for anything you want to know on the subject.

-Hal