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Music royalties and restaurants in Palmdale
- Thread starter 30james
- Start date
You didn't ask me but the answer is yes. There are occupancy rules that factor into it as well. When you say "they play music," is it a radio station? I doubt it. I know McDonalds has a corporate music service. I don't go to Wendy's, so I don't know exactly what it is. Sirius provides a "Sirius For Business" service that pays the royalties for restaurants that subscribe.
Music for Business
With SiriusXM, there is something for every restaurant, office & retail outlet. Choose SiriusXM Music for Business, and let our music work (and rock) for you!
Each performing rights society has a slightly different criteria for licensing. Each allows "a radio behind the counter at a ma and pa hardware store" but if there are multiple wall or ceiling speakers and the use of music, whether radio, a store-assembled playlist or a service, requires a paid license. The payments are based on the sales area of the location and kind of business.
Example: a tire vendor has speakers with a music service in the sales area, the music played is intended to create a nice sales atmosphere for customers, and, thus, must pay a license. One of the employees places a radio near his rack in the service area and he does not have to be licensed as the radio is for personal use.
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The interesting part is that I just had car service done at a tire dealer, and they didn't have music in the sales area. But there was a TV on in the waiting area. Meanwhile, there was a radio playing in the service area.
There are currently 3 major distributors of background music for stores, restaurants and such. Each has music licensing/royalty fees included in the monthly subscription -
Mood Media (formally Musak) via Dish Network
Music Choice via DirecTV and Cable
SiriusXM via Sat Radio. Have no idea how it works for those who choose things like Pandora, Spotify, IHeart, or Over The Air Radio
Mood Media (formally Musak) via Dish Network
Music Choice via DirecTV and Cable
SiriusXM via Sat Radio. Have no idea how it works for those who choose things like Pandora, Spotify, IHeart, or Over The Air Radio
If BMI or ASCAP find out you play music from those sources, you get a phone call from their reps who will tell you how much you owe.
Or SESAC, too. They are particularly aggressive because they try to charge penalties on locations that don't even know they exist.
Plus there are dedicated services used by national chains, such as WalMart and a number of the mid-scale restaurants like Red Robbin, Applebees and the like. Those often include targeted "ads" for in-store clients, too.
This is a great question. I know ASCAP/BMI/SESAC are very aggressive. If I recall correctly there are small business exemptions based up square footage minimums and one speaker. Has anyone heard of any fines or issues with fees being due for a small business playing the radio on one speaker in a small store vs other music sources.
Hey Tibbs! There are a lot of great online sources of information on this subject. Here's a link to a site aimed at bar owners:
Music Licensing for Bars and Restaurants: What You Need to Know
If you play recorded or live music in your bar, you need to be fully aware of all music licensing requirements. The price of not knowing and complying when required opens your business to legal clams by music rights holders such as ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC that could be very costly if your are sued
Some of this was already mentioned, but here are the specifics:
Thanks my friend. I honestly never think about this. Just off the instant cuff, Interesting to see/turn this into an opportunity to sell some radio ads, help small business grow, etc, although I wonder how many businesses would put radio on. I noticed upon my first trip of my many decades into a Dollar General store that they played a Nashville radio station.
I'm guessing that, like most tire places, the sales room is undersized for the rights requirement square footage. However, what I am curious about is whether the entire operation square footage is used to determine exemption, or just the area or room where music is played for the public.
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Doesn’t Sirius XM have channels that are only available for those that have Sirius XM for business? I know there was a “Taste of Italy” channel which isn’t even offered to regular Sirius XM subscribers and is not available in the app either.
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