atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Music On Hold

How does this apply to residential use??

If the system is in a residence and there is no business involved like a home office, they can have anything they want on their hold.

The concept to remember here is if you use music in a business it inhances your business and in some way you are making money off of it. If you are making money with someone elses work the artist or performer who created it is entitled to a cut. This is above and beyond what you may have paid for the recording (or other source) which covers the cost for your own personal use.

-Hal

I had a customer get busted about7 years ago. For him not a big deal. He got a letter stating he had to either pay to keep playing it or disconnect it. He disconnected it and that was that. I talked to an ex-ASCAP about the same time and he said that if the playing equipment was standard household type equipment you could use it. In other words if you have a store you can place a radio every 10' tune them all to the same station and not have any problems. If you use a PA system it is consitered to be reboadcasted. Stupid but that is typical. Not sure it helps.

Yes, I've heard of that. The kitchen help for instance would be allowed to have a boom box in the kitchen and maybe one out front even for the customers would be okay. I think much more than that would be viewed as abusing the policy though.

-Hal

Actually the ASCAP & BMI police are for real. I almost did that but decided not to have an on-hold business at the same time. Playing the radio afterwards or TV shows (re-broadcasting) or at the same time (simulcasting) are both illegal without a license.
A great little option for SOHO (small office/home office) is on www.theholdbutton.com ...this is cheap and comes with a free Phil Keaggy music CD. Good guys too. Tell them "nashvite" sent you. Enjoy....

Hey Guys:

I didn't read the entire thread, so if this has been mentioned already I apologize.

One of my investment properties is a building full of law firms for which I provide the phone system. Aside from my telco business we also own a mergers & aquisitions firm. In both of those locations we use baroke/classical masterpieces. Bach, etc. It sounds really classy and it's so old, that it's in the public domain.

Just a thought.

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There are only 10 kinds of people in the world; those who understand binary & those who don't.

I'm not real sure if music on hold fits the real description of the word broadcast.

Don't know what broadcast has to do with anything. Use copyrighted music for ANY business purpose and you have to pay royalties.

I don't think cable tv fits the description, that's why the fcc leaves them alone.

Umm, no. Cable companies pay carriage fees to the off-air TV stations that they carry and also pay royalties on any music they may provide on their graphics channels.


-Hal


[This message has been edited by hbiss (edited September 18, 2005).]