As an owner of a business, it’s your responsibility to comply with all licensing requirements. Most businesses know they need a permission to serve alcohol but few realise permission is also needed to play music.
Permission is needed to play music that is protected by copyright in a commercial setting – pubs, shops, gyms, dance schools, salons, cafes etc. This applies to any size of business.
By getting the correct permission – in the form of a licence - you can avoid infringing the law. Music creators’ rights are protected in Australia by the Copyright Act (1968).
How to meet your music licensing obligation
OneMusic provides licences for businesses to play the music typically heard on radio, TV and music-streaming services, music bought online and in music stores. A licence covers the majority of commercially released music, worldwide.
Where do music licence fees from your business go?
Did you know that music played out loud in a business is legally different to music at home? You need either a licence or permission if you’re playing music in a public space. Copyright is essential for the protection of all creative industries -from fashion design, to music, art, and books.
A OneMusic licence covers the majority of the world’s music, and the money collected from licence fees goes direct to the music creator members of APRA AMCOS and PPCA.
You probably wonder how we know what music businesses are playing, and how we get the money to the right music creators.
The money creators receive are called royalties. We keep track of the music being played in a huge database drawn from radio and television stations, performance reports, streaming services, and data from background music suppliers.
A new way of collecting that data is through an exciting new technology called the Audoo Audio Meter.
If you’ve ever heard of the ‘Shazam’ app that tells you info on a song that is playing, it’s a similar idea. The Audoo Audio Meter is a device about the size of your phone that plugs into the wall at a business, and what it does is it fingerprints each song that is played throughout the day.
It doesn’t ‘listen’, so it can’t pick up voices or people talking, it just recognises the specific recording of each song played. That data is then sent to APRA AMCOS, which helps to distribute the royalties more accurately.
Any business that’s licensed with OneMusic is able to sign up for an Audoo Audio Meter, And OneMusic will install it free of charge. All you need to do is email audio.meter@onemusic.com.au.
Common misconceptions
A common question we get is “What if I already have a music streaming service subscription?”
Subscribing to a music streaming service, (paid subscription or free) is not the same as having a music licence. Background music suppliers simply provide the music, but not the licence to play to the public. The streaming services most of us use every day is for our personal use. Take Spotify, for example, it’s stated in their Terms and Conditions.
For more information on music licensing, visit OneMusic online.
