May 20th is d-day for Webcasters. This is the date that the Librarian of Congress will pass ruling on royalties to be paid to the major labels by webcasters. We’re talking thousands of dollars, maybe per month for some webcasters. [Click here for the entire LATimes.com story.]
Related to that newstory, did you know that if you run a business where customers come inside your property (all retail business, for instance) and you play a CD over the speaker system, you are supposed to pay royalty fees, even if you are selling their product? Yeah, you read that right!
BMG is notorious for calling businesses around the country and asking questions about music in the workplace. If the business owner makes the mistake of saying they play music that their customers can hear, BMG tells them that they owe royalty fees. The reason: the business is using copy-protected music to enhance their business.
I’d say 9 out of 10 times, a retail business plays music throughout the store for the employees’ benefit, not the customers, but BMG and RIAA don’t care about excuses. They don’t care about their own customers at all.
