On Hold Recordings-bigfines If Your Music Isn't Licensed Properly For On Hold Recordings

On hold recordings and on hold messages done without proper license can spell disaster for a business. Copy writing laws protect the artist's music played on the radio. Legally you are required to pay licensing fees to play songs from a radio station.
Licenses from ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and others must be purchased to play CD's, MP3 audio
files, tapes or the radio on hold, for the use of that music to be lawful.
If your company is caught, you will be subject to costly fines between
$500.00 and $30,000.00. So, if you thought you could save money by
using radio on hold, think again. Besides violating copywriting laws, your
company's image could suffer. The caller may hang up after listening to
music or a D.J. that offends them. After all, would you like your valuable
clients/customers to hear your competitors commercial while waiting on hold?

Though radio stations are properly licensed to perform the music they broadcast, that
agreement does not cover additional public performances by those receiving
the radio broadcast signal. When radio music is used in on hold recordings,
that use is a separate performance under the copyright law. Fees are based
on the number of trunk lines your office has, which is the number of different
individual telephones you have with on hold recording capabilities.
In addition, each office would need its own license.

Some providers of customized music-on-hold programming may include music licensing fees in their price. Others offering this service may be creating liabilities for uninformed clients because they utilize unlicensed music for on-hold productions. If you are uncertain, ask your service whether or not they do include the music licensing fees in their price and to put this in writing.

Although, most people buy tapes and CDs thinking they are now their property, there is a distinction in the law between owning a copy of the CD and owning the songs on the CD. There is also a difference between a private performance of copyrighted music and a public performance. Most people recognize that purchasing a CD doesnt give them the right to make copies of it to give or sell to others. The record company and music publishers retain those rights. Similarly, the music on the CDs and tapes still belongs to the songwriter, composer or music publisher of the work. When you buy a tape or CD the purchase price covers only your private listening use, similar to the home use of home videos. Once you decide to play these tapes or CDs in your business, it becomes a public performance.

Songwriters, composers, and music publishers have the exclusive right of public performance of their musical works under the U.S. copyright law. Therefore, any public performance requires permission from the copyright owner. It's best to deal with an on hold recording company that has already obtained the proper license and permission to play the music appropriate for your business, at a cost that is already included as part of your on hold package. Feel free to contact us directly for more details.