OT performing rights society

[geoff]

Have any other businesses on here been bombarded over the past months by the PRS to get them to fork out for a licence ?

[Hugh Jampton]

Doesn't affect me but I do remember reading about this in the Times :-

[Rod]

Hop on over to uk.legal.moderated and check out this thread:

Kwik-Fit and PRS case (Performing Rights Society)

... and maybe others.

(Not an answer to your question, but hopefully relevant.)

[Rob G]

My brother is a one man cabinet maker and he is always moaning about them pestering him.

Rob

[Lino expert]

He could branch out in to two man cabinets, I believe life's much quieter.

[nightjar]

No. They send me just one reminder each year and I pay the licence fee. Under The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, there are very few businesses that are not liable to obtain a licence. Essentially they are one-man businesses not open to the public and those that use no copyright music at all in any form, including playing a radio in the workplace and music on hold telephones..

Colin Bignell.

[Peter Parry]

There are many copyright free "music on hold" discs available for purchase for telephone use and many similar audible wallpaper discs.

[tony sayer]

In article , geoff scribeth thus

Yes they seem to be on a mission!..

We told 'em to sod off as we don't have the public in here anyway!..

[Gordon Henderson]

I did some reseach recently on music on hold for phone systems - just after Tony Hart died I got a few requests for left bank two (I make phone systems)... { See:

}

You need to buy the music (one off fee - eg. buy it on CD, mp3 format, etc.)

Then you need an MCPS license - Mechanical Copyright Protection Society. This is a one-off for each *device* you install it on and is £35 per 30 seconds of music.

Finally you needs the PRS license and that's variable depending on the numbe of lines you have. (Number of external lines, not internal as you don't put your own staff on hold, I guess!)

It's not hard to do, but I gave up in the end.

Make sure it's royalty free too. If a band records out of copyright music the publisher may still have the ability to collect royalties on it.

Personally, I'd not think too bad of it all if I thought the money raised actually went back to the artists...

Gordon

[OG]

'We' means that there's more than one of you, so you need a PRS licence.

[Peter Parry]

Both charges you mention and the licence apply only to performances/music covered by copyright. There are many disks of classical music available which are copyright free.

Someone has to pay for the MCPS Directors Bentley :-)

You will be pleased to know that the PRS for Music (MCPS) has kindly decided not to make a charge for functions of a purely domestic or family nature, such as wedding receptions, christening parties or domestic birthday parties.

If there was an award for pompous gittery they would be well placed to win.

[Tim S]

OG coughed up some electrons that declared:

According to the PRS.

I fail to see how a few people listening to a common radio constitutes a "performance", especially given the radio station has already paid to broadcast the music.

Could do with a few more people telling them to sod off - it is a completely ridiculous notion.

[Arfa Daily]

I know of several businesses locally. Friend's garage got done, because they were listening to the radio on a car that was in for a service, with the doors open ...

Boss has now banned any car from having the radio on during the garage's normal opening hours.

Arfa

[chrisj.doran]

Not a business myself, but I noticed yesterday that my barber now has a bright yellow PRS licence over his radio, so they're obviously "doing" round here. I was going to remark on it to him, but the conversation went on to other things.

Chris

[David Hansen]

On Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:46:37 +0000 someone who may be geoff wrote this:-

Used to get junk mail from these people. Recycled it.

[Frank Erskine]

Holidays? Something for the weekend?

[tony sayer]

In article , OG scribeth thus

We as in us me, I, myself, and I ;)..

Well if HM can use it so can I .. the missus sometimes has been known to bring some tea in;!....

[Arfa Daily]

I mend hifi and such for a living, so have to play 'real' music as well as test discs and signal generator outputs etc. Setting aside the fact that I am a one man band, I wonder if that is theoretically covered by this PRS stuff ? What about in workshops that have many engineers working in them ?

Arfa

[Clint Sharp]

In message , The Medway Handyman writes

Hmm, Friday/Sunday mornings could be a problem but other than that...

>

[nightjar]

Garages are required to have a licence if they listen to a customer's radio to do any work on it for them, so almost certainly, yes.

The company would be required to declare how many engineers and for how long, on average, they would be listening to the music each day. The alternative, mentioned elsewhere, would be to buy royalty-free music for the purpose.

Colin Bignell