Wife runs a small clothing shop with a bit of back ground music playing via MP3. She got a PRS licence for £180. Now the PPL Nazi’s have contacted her wanting another £150 for a licence to play music we’ve already bought.

Does anyone know of a decent copyright free for commercial usage music website/service or had dealings with PPL especially, don’t mind PRS too much but it’s PPL that really get my goat with their bullying ways.

Sorry just realised put in bike forum- mods delete please or transfer it. Too busy fuming to notice

Amazing Radio own the copyright to all the music they play so no licence needed.
Listening to normal radio is cheaper.
A lady in Scotland got done for singing to her customers.
There is no way out.

Musak?

PPL and PRS are good things. They ensure artists get paid royalties – even more important in these times of diminishing income from record sales.

To frame that – I ran 3 dance music labels in the early 2000’s – when we were on vinyl, sale price would be around £7-9 per release, of which we would get about £2.20 from the distributor (on an “imprint” basis). We’d sell typically 500-750 copies per release, and the artist would expect to see £1.10 of that revenue, so in the region of £600-800 per track.

When the MP3 revolution kicked off, first of all sales plummeted due to file sharing (you can go top 10 on beatport with 100 or less sales) and on a typical £1.49 per track sale, the label will see 50p, of which the artist will probably see 20p.

All of a sudden, it’s financially non-viable for all concerned. Royalties from publishing (TV/licensed premises/adverts if you get lucky) are essential to earning anything from your music.

Once we stopped making decent money, I sold the labels to someone and got out as it was not worth my time anymore, and lots of others did as well.

So the moral of the story is that PRS/PPL helps producers and musicians earn some money, and that’s a good thing.

I spent a long time on the phone to PRS trying to get them to assure me that James Blunt would not get any of my money as I always turn him off when he was on the radio.
The radio stations have to pay to play ,it hurts to pay to listen.
We have a Turkish restaurant near us who play cds made by musicians from their home village.
They still have to pay even though the musicians won’t see a penny.

Try these http://www.akmmusic.co.uk/nonprs.php?s=0

Surely, by playing music, you are advertising it for people to buy. If they don’t hear it they won’t be aware of it & buy it.

Obviously, if they are already famous they can survive without your free publicity but surely the more obscure artistes benefit the most from the opportunity to get their music, out there…..

exactly. too busy with my own stuff to really find a way round it and wifey too busy trying to sell her stuff to survive but just another reason why your high street is lacking independant shops. makes my piss boil.

Nearly £400 a year to play music I’ve already bought.

You’ve bought it your customers haven’t. And obviously you think the music adds to the shops appeal so pay for it.

PPL and PRS are good things. They ensure artists get paid royalties – even more important in these times of diminishing income from record sales.

That’s all fine and good – and I know a bunch of struggling musicians so I’m all for the getting paid for their work. But this is music that the shop has already legally bought – the musician has already been paid for it.

I can understand that a public performance, where the shop gets money for playing the music, should mean more money going to the artist – the shop is getting a financial benefit from the music, so that should be shared with the artist (though that’s still a slippery concept).

Problem is, PRS/PPL go after people just playing music for themselves. They go after one-person businesses who listen to the radio while they work. They go after pubs and restaurants who have live acts (who get paid to perform). And, talking to the struggling musicians I know, they don’t give much back to the struggling musicians, it all goes to line the pockets of the wealthy.

I also object to the TV-licensing-like tactics of PRS/PPL, and refuse to have anything to do with them.

You’ve bought it your customers haven’t. And obviously you think the music adds to the shops appeal so pay for it.

but does it add to the approx equivalent to an extra £1200 in turnover per year? no chance.