Florist told to stop the music: 'No one out front can hear it'
Francie Croy says she normally listens to talkback radio on her phone in the backroom of her flower shop, but Onemusic says she still needs to pay.
Photo:
123rf
A Hawkes Bay florist has had her music listening habits nipped in the bud, after a licensing organisation told her to turn the tunes off at the shop or buy a licence.
Francie Croy listens to the tunes on her phone while she works at her Waipukurau store, but was contacted by Onemusic, which issues licences for certain music to be played in a commercial setting for a fee, so artists get their royalties.
That includes music played while people are on hold on the phone, at a hairdressing salon, music radio in the background at the office or thumping tunes on the factory floor - there is a cost to anything outside of personal use.
The E-Central Flowers owner told
Checkpoint
that she received a phone call from OneMusic, after failing to respond to an email from the company.
"This girl just started to say to me, 'do you play music in your shop?', and I said it's not very often, and she said 'whatever music you play, you're gonna have to have a licence for it'. "
When Croy asked what the cost of the licence would be, she was told it would depend on the square footage of her shop.
"I thought, well, hang on a minute love, you're in Auckland, are you going to send someone down here to measure up my shop and then charge me the appropriate licence?"
Croy said it was rare for her to play music in the store, normally only listening to talkback radio on her phone, mostly in the backroom.
"No one out front of the shop can hear it, but she said to me that I would still have a licence to have to do that because sometimes Newstalk ZB plays music."
She said after the phone call she was sent another email from OneMusic.
"It was a certificate thing, saying this is confirmation that you have advised us that you do not play music in your business and will not play music represented by this place.
"It includes television, radio stations, apps, digital music services, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, CD's, DVD's, Blu-ray, vinyl and cassette tapes, and the list goes on."
Croy said she had no idea that being charged for playing music at her business was even a possibility.
"It's just on my phone, you know, it's just out the back... I just got such a surprise."
She said she had spoken to multiple other small businesses in the same area who had received the same message from OneMusic.
The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment said OneMusic licensed copyright works and MBIE did not have oversight of the scheme.
It said businesses that play music for their staff and/or customers need a licence and the licensing fees paid are distributed to producers and recording artists.
"If a business does not wish to pay any licensing fee to play music, they should not play music. To do so without a licence means the copyright owner may sue the business and award damages.
"A business who wishes to dispute the terms and conditions of the scheme may make an application to the Copyright Tribunal. If the Tribunal determines that the licensing scheme is unfair it may order changes," it said.
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