Errmmm...you know Nanny's rather pedantic rule about needing a licence to perform music in a public place?
You know how usually rather over zealous councils et al apply this to pub singers, carol singers and other assorted performers?
Well here is an application of the rule that has even me (a man of supreme zen like calmness and inner peace - what did I drink last night?) gobsmacked.
In fact, never has my gob ever been more smacked!
Prepare too to be gobsmacked.
Len Attwood is a mechanic from Witham Essex, he repairs cars. Mr Attwood now faces a £2K fine, from the Performing Rights Society, if customers drive into his garage with their car radios on.
Pardon!!!
What??? I hear you ejaculate (I too ejaculated at that point!).
For why does he face a fine?
Cos he does not have a licence to listen to music.
Well fark me rigid!
Mr Attwood was contacted by the Performance Rights Society, who told him that he would need a licence to play music.
He said:
"They phoned up and said, 'do you have any form of music entertainment on the premises?'
I said customers bring their vehicles in with their radios on and while we are working on them the radio is playing. But other than that no.
The woman said she would get back to me. She came back with her supervisor who said I would have to turn the car radios off but I said we didn't like to tamper with the customers' settings.
She said, 'in that case, you will have to tell them to turn them off before they come in.
I just think it's ridiculous."
The Performance Rights Society spokesman said:
"If there is an intent to use music in a workplace to either enhance the working environment or provide music for customers then it is only right that music creators receive royalties and a licence must be obtained.
We realise there may be unique circumstances where the control of whether music is played - such as radios left on in cars that are activated when the car is started - is not in the hands of the business owner, and therefore may not require a licence.
We always try and be fair and use common sense in licensing decisions, whilst ensuring that when music is used commercially in business the correct licence is obtained."
In Nanny's Britain common sense went out the window yonks ago!
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There is nothing that is new under the sun, just more of it, much more in fact, and it is increasing on a daily basis. Trying to avoid sounding chauvinistic, are there too many 'nannies' in charge these days?
ReplyDeleteIt takes me back to the tale of the karaoke. 'Pioneer' were the first to introduce this new virus into the UK, in the latter part of the 1980's. This system was something else, not only did you have a professional backing and the words on a screen, you also had moving pictures. Pioneer had created films which were burnt onto the lazer disc along with the music. These films were all original, very entertaining, many including visual drama which would make the soap opera look amatuer. If the person trying to sing didn't look and sound hilarious enough, the film on the screen had you in fits of laughter.
Now because there was one presenter of the karaoke, premises without a license for singing and dancing had no problem, as the rule then was that you only needed a license if there were two or more performers.
The music and entertainment licensing department came up with a brilliant idea. If a premises were to have this karaoke, because it had moving pictures with it, they needed a cinematographic license, which would entail fire, health and safety checks, extra fire exits as it would now be classed as a theatre, and on top of all this, a license which cost about five times as much as a music license.
This plan for extra money was thwarted by two things: 1. Premises stopping karaoke and 2. The arrival of 'Sony' with their words only karaoke system.
Not to be outdone, the music and entertainment department began to debate whether karaoke should be classed as two or more performers. I will leave the rest of this tale to your imagination, it isn't difficult to know what happened next.
So let me get this right. If you work in a workshop, boutique, supermarket, hotel reception area, open-plan office or any of a huge number of other places where "background" music is played, you need a licence. In all of these places customers are being entertained by the music i.e. they can hear it and it might stop them dying of boredom while they wait. Do chain stores pay for a licence? Are you allowed to play music in communal work areas that don't invite in members of the public, but that may have visitors from time to time? Do you need a licence if your neighbour can hear your radio playing because your kitchen window is open? What about the guy next to you in a traffic queue, the person on the bus who can hear your ipod, and on and on and on and on.........
ReplyDeleteSeems to me that this is the begining of a new way to extort money from lots of people who, by some silly oversight, have been allowed to get away with simply paying for the music and paying for the equipment to play it on without paying extra to bring the two together.
These jobsworths are being more than a little disingenuous. The radio station broadcasting the music has already paid "needle time" for the music. Expecting radio users to pay again is effectively demanding double payment. It's appropriate to demand a licence if a business plays music from CD, tape or whatever but broadcast music has already been paid for.
ReplyDeleteYes, there was a crackdown around the time of the karaoke saga, where undercover agents went into clothes shops etc to find out whether they had a license or not, and yes, they do have to have them. There is kind of loophole which a lot of large stores and restaurants use, where they play what is more commonly known as 'musac', well known and not so well known music specially recorded on delightful things like panpipes or ad hoc orchestras. The producers of the 'musac' pay a license themselves, and the cost of the license for the premises which use it is reduced.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the GBP are concerned, playing the radio with the window open or listening to your ipod for example, it is rather like the recording of video/DVD/CD etc, we are all breaking the copyright law, but there is the crunch, millions of people doing it. If they could find a way to police it and charge for it though they would.
I am quite familliar with the licencing laws about performance of music as I have been working for a large brewery for the past 8 years.
ReplyDeleteYou do need a licence to play copyright music but in the instance it is the radio station doing the playing and they do pay heavy fees for the privilage of doing so.
No one listening to a radio can be asked to pay another fee, weather you are listening at home, at work or have the radio on for the benefit of your customers.
Kerching!!
ReplyDeleteIn these days of economic meltdown, more and more companies/organisations/government agencies will try to find ever more ways to separate you from your money.
Well, it could be worse.
ReplyDeleteAfter all if one lived in a strict muslim country - Afghanistan under the Taleban for example - music would be banned.
There are times, when I am out and about in a 'shopping environment', that the Taleban concept suddenly appears to make sense.
Is there a quango we could complain to about the quality of the shite the Performing Rights people wish to licence to the retail and similar emporia? Maybe fine them or something?
I presume the newish fad of major store groups having their own 'Radio' stations is really just an advertising gig with some sort of reduced cost for licensing the pap they broadcast?
Not two hours ago I was listening to a self-employed barber tell me that a jobsworth from the council pulled him up for having his radio playing on his business premises without an entertainment licence! (The business owner pointed out that there were no customers on the premises 'being entertained', he switched it off when customers came in so that they weren't illegally entertained and suggested that the jobsworth bugger off - which he obligingly did.)
ReplyDeleteThen I switch on the PC and read this - it's an X Files moment!
I recommend that you visit the MCPS/PRS website:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk/Pages/default.aspx
This shower call themselves "‘not for profit’ and only deduct a small admin/commission fee to cover operating costs." Yet when you look more deeply they have a considerable number of staff and board members, and the "jobs" page makes much of the excellent perks available.
As far as they are concerned we are all "customers" who must pay to "use" music, even if the radio station has already paid. They like to try it on as well - a friend of mine who runs a small garage got a bill for over £300, but after some haggling they reduced it to just over £100.
Yank with questions:
ReplyDelete1. How do these sorts of people get elected to councils?
2. Why don't people run for office and defeat them based on a simple recitation of their records?
3. Hoow did vigilante justice develop such a bad name in the UK?
Back to my yanking now.
Yank:
ReplyDeleteIn general terms, most of these "officers" are not elected. They are merely employees of the organisation, be it the local council or, as in this case, a quango.
Most, but not all, of our elected members are decent people with some measure of commonsense, however, local councils etc tend to attract a certain type of person to work for them. If one looks at a local councils jobs section, many vacancies are for non jobs in relation to equality, 'Elf'n'Safety, diversity etc etc. One needs to be very PC to get work with the council. These people then seem to ensure only that type of person is employed in the future and hence the types of stories featured on this site.
The political colour of the council, in terms of this type of story, matters not, it is those employed by the local authority that makes and implements the everyday policies in these organisations.
"Mr Attwood was contacted by the Performance Rights Society, who told him that he would need a licence to play music."
ReplyDeleteWho the fark are these tossers?
"The Performance Rights Society spokesman said:
"We always try and be fair and use common sense in licensing decisions...."
Like fark they do!
In Nanny's Britain common sense went out the window yonks ago!
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posted by Ken at 1:23 AM on Jan 15, 2009