Newsletters

June 2006

Playing the Radio to Callers on Hold?
You May Have to Pay the Piper

You may not know this, but there are three organizations that collect fees from businesses who use copyrighted music publicly – on radio and television, the internet, at clubs and restaurants, and played to callers on hold on a telephone.

The organizations that collect fees on behalf of artist members are ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.), and SESAC which originally stood for Society of European Stage Authors and Composers, but is now simply known as SESAC. However, they are sometimes criticized for complicated or even unfair rules though federal copyright laws support the organizations in their endeavors. The guiding principal is that artists and their publishers should be appropriately compensated for their creations.

In March 2006, the Austin Business Journal reported that two Austin businesses had been targeted in copyright infringement actions against clubs and restaurants in 11 states. ASCAP alleged that Spill, and Nasty’s, two Austin night spots, played copyrighted works of ASCAP members without their permission, resulting in lost income for the artists. According to the Business Journal article, ASCAP has been after these two establishments for years and is seeking $10,000 to $100,000 in damages from each business.
ASCAP claims non-profit status and says the majority of the fees it collects go directly to members. However, in a 1997 Austin American-Statesman article on the subject, Jerry Jeff Walker’s wife Susan, also his manager, reportedly said that he had never seen a royalty check from BMI specifically for radio or television music played in restaurants or other businesses.

In the years that I’ve been involved in business communications, I’ve only seen businesses threatened for playing unlicensed music on hold a few times, and usually the business simply stopped playing the unlicensed music and that was that. On occasion, customers have stopped playing the radio and instead played music on CD, believing that since they purchased the CD, they have the right to play it to callers on hold. However, this is not the case. Purchasing music on CD or paying to download songs does not authorize public performance of that music.

The good news is that businesses can take advantage of reasonably priced, licensed music to play to callers on hold, without paying thousands or even hundreds of dollars a year in royalty fees. For companies that want more than just background music, there are also options for customized information or advertising on hold. Whatever the choice, it is evident that callers prefer to hear something on hold. The time spent on hold doesn’t seem as long when music or a message is played, and valuable information can be provided in a short span to a “captive audience” on hold. For more information about "On-Hold" options, contact us at Crockett Communications.