quote:

Originally posted by Ashphalt

"Be really careful. If you use music you may well owe the artists. You may be paid a visit by BMI or ASCAP or their lawyers and find that you owe thousands of dollars. Purchasing a CD does not allow you to utilize the music for commercial puposes without an additional fee."

Not "may," will!

Most businesses are visited by an ASCAP representative. If you are using CDs, MP3s. karaoke, jukebox, or any other source for recorded music other than free radio air waves or subscribe to MUSAK, you can contact ASCAP and they’ll give you the yearly fee, which isn’t really all that much money.

They usually don’t "fine" you when they come and see you are using CDs and such for music. They just ask if you’ve been visited before, and if not, then they send you the paper work for you to fill out and a bill will come by.

When they send you a bill, that appears to be a "fine" and may come from a lawyer, it’s probably because you were visited by ASCAP and told them you either were only using the radio or weren’t playing music at all and then later, when they revisited, they caught you in a lie.

Also, you must pay an ASCAP fee if you have live music performed at your place. (this makes you a performance space).

from the prospective of someone who has mixed music for a living for the retail and hospitality (resturants and hotels) industires for years, when i had resturant clients i would recommend no music during prime dining hours in the main dining room unless they were a specialty type of resturant. i found that it was more intrusive on the dining experience and that unless the facility was particularly well conditioned for sound it just added to the general din and could be very annoying. all these studies about spending more and eating more by the type of music played or such are basically urban myth. as far as the bar area or late or early dining when the room is not too crowded then music appropriate to the theme of the resturant should be played. good music if appropriate will keep people in a place longer as it makes them more comfortable, it doesn’t increase their
metabolisim or produce endorphins as far as royalties go they should be paid as any establishment that plays music in any form is obligated to do so by the copyright laws. The artists and songwriters are entitled to their just compensation the same way that any supplier of a product or service is. but it is highly unlikely that either ascap or bmi will come after you retroactively.

Good thought, Greg. And here’s the answer from Sirius. http://www.sirius.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Sirius/Page&c=FlexContent&cid=1059597407488

I’d guess that XM has something similar.

Can you buy a commercial package from Sirius or XM that icludes the fee?

"Be really careful. If you use music you may well owe the artists. You may be paid a visit by BMI or ASCAP or their lawyers and find that you owe thousands of dollars. Purchasing a CD does not allow you to utilize the music for commercial puposes without an additional fee."

Not "may," will!

Be really careful. If you use music you may well owe the artists. You may be paid a visit by BMI or ASCAP or their lawyers and find that you owe thousands of dollars. Purchasing a CD does not allow you to utilize the music for commercial puposes without an additional fee.

just remember ASCAP and BMI . . . or they will do it for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by newmans

According to studies of some researchers, proper music stimulates guests to order on 15 – 20 % more. Right now I am going to create music menu for fine dining restaurant, if somebody had such experience before, I will be very grateful for advices.

One restaurant I worked at had a bunch of tapes (right there I am dating myself) that a waiter made for the place. It was an eclectic mix, but at the end of the night the Love Theme from the film, Blade Runner would come on. It had a soulful saxophone in the tune. To me, when I heard it, I felt that the night was over and time to end the day.

It seems that one consideration that I have seen is that some places are using XM or Sirius satellite radio. There are a variety of channels that play tunes that would be suitable for whatever place you own and the food you serve. For instance, if I had a BBQ place, there are blues, soul and even I think, a New Orleans channel. Jazz always seems to work for many places

Another consideration is to download music onto your MP3 player and play your own selection of tunes. My last boss did that. It’s funny, he was a complete jerk, but I could not fault his taste in music. It was like how could somebody who was soooo uncool play such cool music?

mark

Music that is played via ipod, mp3, cd etc… in a commercial setting is not legal in many ways. There are fees that must be paid but more importatly, burning tracks to your ipod and using them for commercial use is NOT legal. Check out a company called Prescriptive Music (www.RXmusicCD.com) Thaey have the only LICENSED on demand music delivery system in the US… it is like an ipod on STEROIDS! The other major issue is What to play. This company specializes in what to play, when to play it, why to play it and how loud. They have created the music for the new PUCK restaurant in Beverly Hills. There seems to be a big push for good music in restaurants now. These guys can help.

quote:

Originally posted by Ashphalt

Scorereader, that’s right, you’re in the music business, aren’t you? You know what you’re talking about. Thanks for the solid input.

I’d say the same for you. You’re right on the the mark.

Scorereader, that’s right, you’re in the music business, aren’t you? You know what you’re talking about. Thanks for the solid input. You make a good point that this isn’t a tax, it’s a royalty payment to composers.

Rootsman. "In the case of a hotdog cart, trailer or dry cleaners, cound’t they argue that the music is for personal use and there is no audience, i.e., it is simly being overheard by the customer?" I haven’t heard of cases of outdoor vendors (which doesn’t mean it hasn’t been tested). However, the courts have been littered with restaurant and bar owners who have put forth such arguments. Once you’ve been offered a license and continue to infringe copyrights you’re susceptible to statutory damages, double damages, and attorneys’ fees which are more than enough to sink a small business.

As for the dry cleaner, I’d compare it to any other retail establishment (department store, grocery, etc.) There’s a good reason why services such as Muzak have been so successful.

quote:

Originally posted by wheregreggeats.com

I wonder if they can tax my next party at my house?

Or those people who play their music so loud in their car the whole neighborhood can hear! Them I’d like to see taxed! [}:)]

it’s not a tax.
ASCAP is a non-profit organization that(among other things) collects and distributes royalty payments for the non-dramatic public performance of copyright protected music. It’s operated by a Board of Directors voted into their position by the members (composers). It’s not a government agency.

I wonder if they can tax my next party at my house?