Essex FSB has been approached by a number of members regarding the Performing Rights Society (PRS) threatening them with legal action for playing music on their business premises.
Essex FSB is increasingly concerned that the Performing Rights Society appears to be adopting "bully boy" tactics to force small businesses to buy Performing Rights Licences when music is being played on their premises even if it isn't an integral part of their business.
Please keep sending us details of your experiences - see below for more information.
Campaign Success!
In an announcement on Friday 06 March 2009 The Performing Rights Society said that workplaces with four or less employees will now pay just £44 a year for a license to play music after a consultation between the licensing authority the PRS for music and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).
Last summer the FSB accused the PRS of a "money-making exercise" claiming that the licensing regime was both complicated and costly.
But now music can now be played in workplaces with four or fewer staff with a license that costs less than £1 a week.
These workplaces wishing to obtain a music licence can now pay a reduced flat rate of £44 per annum + VAT – whereas before, it would have cost them around £84.
The change, which is a reduction of almost 50%, was brought in by PRS for Music after consultation with the FSB and its wider membership.
Read the full statement here.
PPL Tariffs Unfair - Refunds Due
A High Court ruling on Friday 12 February 2010 backed a Copyright Tribunal decision which said that tariffs introduced by the Phonographic Performance Limited.
As a result new charges have been brought in for future licences and refunds totalling an estimated £20 million are to be made to pubs, hotels and restaurants which paid the higher fees dating back to 2005.
Refund Process Details
Check out your business
The price of of a licence when playing music at your workplace does vary depending on the type of business.
Check out the cost for you type of business here.
Pay Musicians
Essex FSB believes it is right that musicians receive payment for their work when it is played in public but having a radio on in your work place to keep you company when you work alone is very different from broadcasting the music to a paying audience.
Ombudsman
If you are unhappy with the decisions of the PRS and have exhausted their internal complaints procedure you can appeal to the independent Ombudsman which is a free to use service.
Contact Ombudsman
Experiences Sought
We want to see some common sense applied to the rules and to provide us with evidence for our campaign we are asking businesses in Essex, Havering and Redbridge to send details of the contact they have had with the Performing Rights Society. Send us your story.
Forum
You can find out more about FSB members' views on this topic at the FSB Forum.
Latest News
For the latest news on the campaign go to Essex News and insert "performing rights" in the search engine.
Comments from Essex FSB Members
We are a small family restaurant and have always paid an annual payment to PRS. However, I feel that the charges are excessive and would like to see them reduced. We also have to pay PPL as well as PRS and they were trying to charge us for a fictional square meterage, £520.10 which we have reduced to £254.52 due to our own diligence.
We are currently paying £486.56 to PRS so with the £254.52 that totals £741.08 just to play background music in the restaurant. With the new annual liqueur license fee to the council of £180.00 that takes us up to almost £1000 per annum just in licensing.
I feel that there must be another criteria (other than how big a premises is) to work out a rate for the licensing of music. Music is integral to our business, but I don't believe that £750 per annum (and continually rising) is reasonable or justifiable. I am stunned that they also want to charge businesses who play background music as a way to break up the monotony of the day for workers and customers alike.
Suzanne Viscariello, La Toscana, Billericay
We are a 2 Bedroom Bed & Breakfast in Little Bentley, and are not really very busy. We do not play any music in the Bedrooms or Dining Room we only have the Mandatory TV in the 2 Bedrooms, which will be listend to Privately by our Guests.
I asked the PRS by phone what we would have to pay if we had One Bedroom and were open for 10 Nights per year. The answer was £61, in other words our price to our Guests would have to rise by £6 Per Night to enable them to watch TV, even if they even watched the News.
This is stupid, and I told the Tourist/FSB Meeting we would have to close our B&B, and I guess every other small PRIVATE B&B in the Country would have to do the same.
Nigel Dyson, Bentley Manor, Colchester
I was contacted by the PRS by telephone and asked if we played music here. I told them we didn't as we have a machining shop and no music could be heard.
They then asked if anyone had MP3 players on the premises. I told them they didn't.
Some of our staff do have MP3 players which they use here, but I believe that it is not illegal to listen to your own music on your own MP3 player so didn't think it was any of their business!
Also, our staff wear ear defenders which have built-in radio, but as we are in a rural area the only station they can pick up is R4.
I then had a follow-up letter sent by them which I shredded as I thought it was more useful as packing material.
The only impact it has had on us is complete bemusement.
I looked at their licence fees on their website and there is no way we can afford those. It is hard enough work at the moment affording to pay wages.
Although they were very courteous on the telephone it did leave a nasty taste in my mouth. A bit bullying. I never give in to bullies !
Eve Howlett, TK Fabrications, Basildon and Harlow
I have a haidressing salon, very small just a 1 room unit, and have been paying the prs every year for a liecence to play the radio. they send me an invoice and i pay. i assumed i was breaking the law if i didn't pay. It costs about £78.00 per year and is different depending on how you play your music. i.e tapes, c.ds, radio music t.v or musac recordings.
Alison Warry
I am a vehicle hire company and refused to have radios in the office and workshop because of this issue.
I disagree with the PRS having any control over radio broadcasting. The whole situation is un enforceable and should be discontinued.
If licences were required it would be better to bring back Radio Licences but as most places would have a television licence they would be covered. Perhaps the licence should become a broadcasting licence with different degrees of cover but this is a different issue and minefield.
I do not know what good the PRS do and what their defence would be but I feel very strongly that radios should be allowed without charge.
If a charge was necessary it should be levied at source by the provider of the music which would simplify matters in our over regulated and taxed society.
Steve Gale, Southend-on-Sea
I am a Sole Trader working in an old forge which, due to Health and Safety, the public are excluded from entering. There is a notice on the door saying that it is a private workshop. When a customer does arrive, if the radio is on I turn it down so it cannot be heard and then see the customer outside. The amount of time I have the radio on is very limited because most of the time I am either forging, grinding or machining and so could not hear it if it was on.
I have had 2 letters from PRS stating that I need a licence and 2 phone calls. During the first call several questions were asked and a lot of assumptions were made by the lady and then I was told that because the workshop was away from home I would need a Licence and it would be about £120.
Both a customer whose profession is a Solicitor and I have looked at the act and neither of us can see why I need it and so I have not bought one. The second time PRS contacted me I told them that it was with my solictor and I haven't heard from them since.
I have discussed PRS with other business customers and it is mixed. Some haven't been contacted, others have. One runs a hair salon and has been asked to pay about £70. A local garage £44. Why does a hair salon with a number of the public listening most of the time get it cheaper than an individual whom rarely listens to it? When the said salon didn't renew their licence PRS contacted them and when they were told that the neighbouring, competing salon didn't have a licence and when they had bought one the other would renew theirs, I am told that PRS sent a new licence free!
My feeling is that the Radio stations pay a fee to the performers and so that should cover it for individuals like myself and for workers where it does not add to the promotion of the business. If it is adding to the atmosphere and promoting the business to customers then a licence is fair. With the current situation, if it is to be fair, I should be able to charge a licence fee for the owners of my ironwork for when others use it.
At the moment, things are very tight and to pay another £120 would be hard to cope with.
Forge, Essex
I'm a new shop, opened end Nov. ‘08. Before opening I contacted the PRS as I wanted to have the radio on in the shop. I'm a keen supporter of the arts and was happy to pay for a license.
I ‘phoned them, they sent the info pack. Then a few days passed, maybe a week, before I got round to sending off payment to get the license. During that time they wrote to me threatening action if I did not pay – I was stunned, having volunteered to buy the license, and as far as I was aware not in breach of any time limit or such.
I thought it was to support struggling artistes.
Retailer, Southend-on-Sea
We were contacted a year ago requesting we pay a fee for the playing of music in our workshop. Having looked at the feasibility of paying the fees it was decided it was an extortionate amount for the number of operatives we have in there.
The Co decided to ban the use of the radio.
We are a stonemasonry contractor who employs 25 personnel – 20 of whom are out on sites full time – three are based in our masonry workshop where the music would like to be played!
West Essex
We were contacted by letter from PRS about music on hold, we must have received at least 20 letters from them.
Our telephone system plays a CD when and if we put people on hold they hear the CD, we purchased a CD specifically to overcome this problem which is available locally from Mayflower plc Communications House Chapel Street, Billericay, Essex CM12 9LT 0800 804 8570,
Melvin Wright, Essex Packaging Supplies Limited, Romford
We are a business employing 20 people over three sites working in the field of marine and industrial engineering. As well as our offices and workshops we also have engineers working on the road from company vans covering most of the south east. We were contacted in October 2008 by the PRS regarding music at work. Initially they contacted our SUFFOLK branch, our branch manager found the call to be intrusive and to be honest quite rude, we then received a letter at our ESSEX head office and although addressed to the previous owner of the business we made contact with the PRS to advise we do not play music on the premises for the benefit of staff or customers. We later received the second letter which suggests they will "check up on us".
Our initial reaction was, haven't they got anything better to do than hound small businesses who in difficult times are trying to continue to concentrate on keeping the business going, we have reiterated to the staff that playing of music is not permitted and carried on as normal. There have been comments recently to us by staff especially since the story of the garage owner who has been taken to task for playing music in his work shop (look east or ITV east) expressing how stupid this seems. I must agree that it all seems a little overkill to react as the PRS have done and in the manner they have conducted themselves.
North Essex
I have not been contacted by the PRS but just wanted you to know that I think musicians/ composers need to get their fees for their music being played. Using music is no different to using any other service such as gas /electricity/waste disposal which makes our home and business environment more comfortable and the people who provide music should be appropritely rewarded.
We do not get other services for free - why should we get music for free?
Heather Brialey, HB Care Consultancy Limited, Brentwood
Music is a creative art, and the artists deserve to be rewarded.
IF you listen to the Radio at home or in your car....you are LISTENING = No Fee
Even lying on a beach…..with radio just loud enough for your listening only = No Problem
In the Workplace…typically Hairdressers / Garages etc with the music either FED through the building, or more likely turned up so Staff & Customers can hear….YOU ARE ‘BROADCASTING' and need a Licence.
The PRS Collect these fees and distribute monies back to the artists.
So…………YES……………I AM in favour of the PRS collecting Fees from those who ‘Broadcast'
Similarities………..well say a McAfee or Windows package for Home Computer….yes you may use it at home on a couple of machines, but you may NOT Copy it nor use it at your place of work. CD / Video ‘Piracy'…….etc.
I have known about the PRS since the early 70's, and remember all those awful ‘piped music' soundalike recordings that shops / leisure centre's played………..they were used because they were a cheaper monthly subscription than the real / original recordings. ( I think only Wilkinson's Stores use that type now ).
As you see I DO feel strongly about folks / companies PAYING their Licence Fees, and in fact I wish that the PRS were more forceful in their approach.
AND………..by the way……………TV's in the workplace = TV Licence or LARGE FINE…………(and that money goes to the BBC, rather than to the ‘Artists'.
Stuart Smith, Basildon