Licences to play music

[bubble2bubble]

We have a shop & play music from an Ipod & have always had a licence to do so from PRS here
Then today a guy turns up representing these people and says we will be prosecuted if we don't also purchase a licence from them

Anyone have any experience of this - is it all a scam??

It looks like he is right....
"There are two separate copyrights in a sound recording and a licence is required for each one:
The copyright in the lyrics and composition are owned by the author and music publisher and this is administered by PRS for Music.
The copyright in the performance and sound recording are owned by the performers and record company and administered by PPL.
As PRS for Music and PPL operate for different rights owners they have always remained as separate companies"
from the PPL website

We have always had both but we do perform music as well as play it.

PPL are certainly a recognised organisation. Maybe this is why lots of shops / offices just have the radio on (presume you only need 1 licence for that).

The PRS collects license fees for composers and publishers. The PPL collect fees for performers and record companies. In essence PRS deal with the rights to the song, PPL deal with the rights to the particular recording of the song. At one time they worked together providing a one stop shop where you could get all the licenses you needed. However, that seems to have stopped. It is not a scam. You need both.

I work in a car showroom and we have started to be bothered by PPL, they have a very hard sell type tactic. We have always paid the prs. PPL started threatening legal action, but it's gone quiet, so not sure what is happening.
They do have a bit of a nerve as the radio stations will already have paid them a fee for broadcasting the music, so they are expected to paid twice.

A bit like if we bought a magazine then left it on a table for a customers to read, then the magazine company expecting to paid again for every customer that read it.

oh well, just something else to pay then

I just can't believe I haven't heard of it before.

DH dealt with the guy who came round & said he just seemed a bit defensive about PPL as well as a bit disparaging about PRS which is what made us a bit suspicious.

and like everthing else I wonder if they pick on small businesses as it's an easy target.....

PRS for Music administers the performing right in musical works such as songs or instrumentals etc. Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL) licenses rights similar to PRS for Music?s but in relation to copyright ?sound recordings?, rather than original musical works which may have been embodied in them. So, if you play CDs, tapes or records you may also need a PPL licence as well as one from us. PPL represents record companies and performers. PRS for Music represents composers, songwriters and music publishers.

That's from PRS, PRS pays the artists and it seems PPL pay the people behind the scenes, producers etc.

Hope this helps.

Flipping heck...

That's bananas, talk about creatng red tape where there was no need for it...

switch off the IPod!