It has been an interesting week
this week and I had an appointment at an Afro Caribbean Radio Station and
recording studio frequented by people like Maxi Priest.
It made me think about the costs
of listening to music and the fees charged by the PRS and the PPL.
Quite often these costs can be
expensive and hidden in commercial property service charges.
If your Landlord charges his
overall site management fee on a percentage basis of the total of your service
charge, then perhaps you are paying even more than you need to.
So how do you reduce this cost or
avoid the need to pay for a PRS or PPL License if you are a tenant?
Indeed many small business forums
contain posts from people who have received large demands for license fees from
the PRS without any notice.
One situation I came across
recently was an NHS employee working on an expansive first floor reception in a
multi occupied PFI building. She had a
small radio playing next to her on the desk and the landlord had received a
rather large bill from the PRS and paid it - and had snook in into the service charge.
On investigation the employee said that the radio was for ‘privacy’
reasons so she could deal with patients at the reception area without anyone
else sitting nearby listening into their conversation as the place was ‘echoey’.
However the PRS was charging a rate for broadcasting the radio to the
entire waiting area.
Due to the limitations of the
landlords service charge billing expertise, ALL of the tenants in the building
were being charged a portion of the large PRS license fee, whether they used
the first floor reception or not.
So my recommendations are as
follows:
Firstly look closely at your
service charge bill – if you don’t get a breakdown of what you are paying for,
ask your Landlord to provide one.
If you are paying directly or
indirectly for a PRS license then check whether you should be paying – are you
playing the music or benefiting from it being played? If not then you need to consult with your
Landlord and the PRS.
If you want music playing but
don’t want to pay for a license then you need to take a good look at the rules
for playing music that is out of copyright or loyalty free. It is extremely simple to access royalty free
radio stations online or to download / obtain music or CDs that are out of
copyright or loyalty free. I’ve listed a few web sites to check out at the end
of this post. I will try and get the links running but today my new laptop is not playing ball.
The alleged sharp practises of
the PRS in collecting royalties has been the topic of many business forum
discussions and one of the most interesting threads I have read was the outcome
of the case Societa consortile
Fonografici (SCF) V Marco Del Corso which was a high level Italian SJEU
court case relating to the playing of a radio in an Italian Dentist’s waiting
area and whether a PRS license was required.
In this case it was found that
the playing of music in the patients waiting area was only to a ‘limited class
of public’ and was not a ‘communication’ for ‘profit making purposes’ i.e. that
the patients were not flocking to the dentist because he had a radio in his
waiting area, but to get treatment - they were accidental listeners!
The PRS has claimed that
the position is different in the UK and has continued to demand license monies
from NHS and similar tenants, but it has been noted by law firms that the position is up for
challenge should there be a further reference of a UK case to the CJEU.
Other links for Royalty free
music and radio and general information about copyright are below:
Copyrightsandwrongs.nen.gov.uk
https://musopen.org/
https://www.jamendo.com/en/welcome
http://www.imsradio.net/
http://rfmradio.co.uk/flash.swf
http://www.ichillmusic.com/
http://www.akmmusic.co.uk/
http://radio.publicdomainproject.org/
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