Music License

P

PoconoBilliards

Pocono Billiards & Suppli
Whats the deal with needing a music license just to play background music.
I have a Jukebox but it rarely gets played. I found that keeping music playing in the background keeps people on the tables longer. If someone wants to play the Jukebox I'll turn off the other music till they stop putting in money. We recently received a phone call from BMI Music that if we use piped in music we need to get purchase a license at $400.00 a year. Has anyone else run into this.
 
unfortunately, its true, you need to be licensed to play certain music in a commercial establishment. a juke box is one of the only legal ways to play music without a license. (except for radio broadcasts)

and they can sue your ass into oblivion if you dont comply. trust me, i've seen it happen.

believe it or not, they (BMI ASCAP etc) have agents in every major city whos job it is to catch bars and clubs that are providing music without a license.
 
Mr. Bond said:
unfortunately, its true, you need to be licensed to play certain music in a commercial establishment. a juke box is one of the only legal ways to play music without a license. (except for radio broadcasts)

and they can sue your ass into oblivion if you dont comply. trust me, i've seen it happen.

believe it or not, they (BMI ASCAP etc) have agents in every major city whos job it is to catch bars and clubs that are providing music without a license.
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And the fines can be so high that they have forced some bars to close.
 
licensing fees are typically based on the total capacity of the establishment (and how busy you "might" be), what type of establishment it is, and what music is being played there.

as an alternative, you can always play radio stations.

or, in some areas, you can pay for a licensed "music channel" to play in your establishment without paying for a BMI license too. ( like the type that they provide on your cable network)

just make sure you are paying for 'commercial service' and not just tapping off a residential cable broadcast.
 
A customer of mine has a multi-million dollar business and he was playing music from XM on his phone system while customers were on hold.

He did not have a license, and ASCAP sued him for a percentage of his profits.
 
Just another way to keep us from making a profit. We have a room for live music and we are paying $2400 per year because of it. It seems that everyone has their hand out....
 
I wonder how much of that money eventually ends up in the pockets of the artists that these labels represent.
 
Needing a music royalty license has been around for decades. Not anything new. You dont need one if you are a charity. So as long as you never charge for anything you can have free music. Otherwise get a jukebox and let the vendor pay for the license. If you want background music you can subscribe to MUZAK or another company that provides this and they pay for the licensing. Easy fixes.

PS...you cannot play radio stations. I already know several places that have been sued and lost by doing that. And if you charge a cover charge you cannot even have a major league baseball game or Football game on, without paying for it. Superbowl parties at bars get busted for this all the time.
 
I'm purchasing my own jukebox. It comes with a $199 a month subscription fee and hooks to the internet. You can play any song ever made for the $199 a month fee, and since you own the jukebox you keep 100% of the profits.

Here's the one I'm getting:
http://www.monkeysarcades.com/Internet_Jukebox_p/netjuke1.htm

It is also supposed to have a firmware upgrade released later on that does karaoke. There are inputs on it for microphones, and outputs on it to send the karaoke data to televisions. The hard drive holds like 300,000 songs on it, and others are downloaded as the customer selects them.

Now I just need to figure out what speakers I want to put on. Gonna create a new thread for that. If you have any speaker recommendations please check out my new thread.
 
ctyhntr said:
I wonder how much of that money eventually ends up in the pockets of the artists that these labels represent.
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Even with cd or record sales the artists typically receive only 5-6 points out of 100, so per cd sale that would be like 55 cents, and from that they have a lot of fees they pay as far as production and promotion costs and etc etc. Just saw this info on "Behind the music" on the group TLC. While they were number 1 on the charts and platinum selling atrists at their peak they had to file for chapter 11 bankrupcy because they owed millions not just to their recording company but to pebbatone who they signed with originally and to music video costs etc. Their yearly take home at their peak was ~50k a year ea after taxes and everything.

I doubt they get 1/10th of play royalities on licenced playback, maybe they get a fraction of a penny if anything.

If there ever was a corrupt industry... You'll find a lot more new artists choosing to stay unsigned these days because of all this, and becoming known just using the internet and youtube etc.
 
I pay for cable then play music from it or turn on the ball game for people to enjoy. Are you telling me that is illegal?
 
deerhunter said:
I pay for cable then play music from it or turn on the ball game for people to enjoy. Are you telling me that is illegal?
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Technically, it is illegal since you are providing a service to paying customers from a service that is supposed to be used for personal use.

From BMI:

Question: Aren't TV, Cable, And Radio Stations Already Licensed with BMI?

They are, however, those agreements do not authorize the performance of such TV, cable, and radio to the public by businesses and other organizations.

Public performances of radio and TV are specifically addressed in Title 17, Section 110(5)(B) of the U.S. copyright law which states that any food service or drinking establishment that is 3750 square feet or larger, or any other establishment, other than a food service or drinking establishment, that is 2000 square feet or larger, must secure public performance rights for TVs or radios if any of the following conditions apply:

• For TV, if the business is using:

more than four TVs; or
more than one TV in any one room; or
if any of the TVs used has a diagonal screen size greater than 55 inches; or
if any audio portion of the audiovisual performance is communicated by means of more than six loudspeakers, or four loudspeakers in any one room or adjoining outdoor space; or
if there is any cover charge.
• For radio, if the business is using:

more than six loudspeakers; or
more than four loudspeakers in any one room or adjoining outdoor space; or
if there is any cover charge; or
music on hold.
 
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I owned a bar for several years and the juke used to pay the rent every month, and thats after the vending compy took half, but i didnt mind cause that thing broke down once a month and was replaced about once a year or 18 months. And I never had to buy cd's but the up keep was a mother (for the vending co.) so go over the service contract with a fine tooth comb, remember , anything that can go wrong , will.
 
Get a juke box from a vendor. Make money and on touch tunes it's 14.99 a month for background music. Gets louder when folks spend money. Don't pay money.....get paid
 
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