A while back, I voiced an on-hold program for a client, and when he declined all of my choices for royalty-free music to mix behind my vocals, he suggested something that still stymies me to this day:
“Can’t we just play Michael Jackson?”
I tried to explain to him that our combined incomes—let’s throw in the incomes of everyone who works for him; heck, let’s go even further to combine all of our incomes and that of everyone who works in his office park—couldn’t come close to affording what it might cost to legally mix a track from the Michael Jackson catalogue into an on-hold program. The thought that permission or royalties would even have to be paid—on top of what he had already paid for the CD—never occurred to him.
Grudgingly, he eventually gave in and chose a cut from my collection, but even after the fact, he still vigorously debated how great it would be to have “Human Nature” playing for his customers.
Many people don’t realize how limiting and restrictive their agreements with online downloading entities like Apple iTunes are, or even the agreements they informally strike up with the license holders of the CDs they just bought. (Do people still buy CDs…?) They are, essentially, signing up for private listening. If they play it in any milieu other than enjoying it for themselves or among family and friends, that’s considered broadcasting. And that requires permission and the payment of a licensing fee.
Playing music in a restaurant, bar, office, store, or in an on-hold messaging program, requires a license. Three large companies in the U.S. regulate and monitor the use of licensed materials, making sure the artists and musicians get their fair share from their creative works being used: Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI), the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) and Society of European Stage Authors & Composers (SESAC); a few smaller firms do this as well.
Because music is so prevalent and pervasive in almost everything we are exposed to (especially online), seldom do we think about entitlements and remuneration that the artist might be due. We purchase or download songs for free, copy them relentlessly, and distribute them without flinching.
Another common practice is to play a radio station for customers on hold, which unleashes a whole other subset of problems. The same copyright issues apply: There is no express permission of the music title and mechanical copyright holders for you to broadcast their music, and for that reason alone, playing a radio station while on-hold is illegal in many states. Also, there is no control over the specific songs played, some of which could potentially be offensive to callers. Additionally, you could be unwittingly broadcasting commercials for your competitors, which your customers are forced to absorb while waiting for service from your company.
Technical aspects of radio, such as sounding harsh in monaural sound, plus being prone to interference, make radio not the best option for on-hold.
So what’s the big deal over playing tunes you’ve downloaded or purchased to run under your on-hold program? It’s done all the time by everybody, and it’s impossible to monitor or enforce…right?
It is difficult to monitor. Millions of performances of copyrighted music take place every day, however, increasingly, representatives from BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC are contacting businesses and determining whether their licenses are current for the materials they are playing on-hold or streaming on their Web sites, etc.
How bad can the penalties be?
Actual damages, as well as statutory damages of up to $20,000, can be awarded for each copyrighted song performed without a license. The damages can actually be closer to $100,000 if the infringement is willful. And those who willfully infringe for commercial advantage or private gain can be fined up to $25,000, be sentenced to jail time of up to a year, or both. It’s well worth the detectives for the licensing agencies to do some poking around.
Those practicing due diligence will purchase individual licenses from the licensing agencies for each project or selection of music they plan to use, or, as in the case of an on-hold company, the many titles they plan to use on an ongoing basis. The payment of a yearly lump-sum to the licensing agencies makes sense. Proof of the license is usually issued to those who purchase on-hold programs to make sure everyone is covered in case a BMI or an ASCAP comes knocking on their call center doors.
Personally, I find the purchasing outright of individual tracks from various online royalty-free music agencies to be headache-free and a far better option. Two of my favorites are www.musicbakery.com and www.soundrangers.com. For a flat, one-time purchase fee, you have unlimited worldwide usage of the track for as long as you own it. Their music is also current, there’s a vast array of choices, and their selections are, for lack of a better word, non-schmaltzy, as can be a lot of pre-packaged, off-the-shelf on-hold collections. And best of all, there can be no repercussions on the royalty side. That means peace of mind for me and my clients.
————
Allison Smith is a professional telephone voice, having voiced platforms for Sprint, Verizon, Qwest, Cingular, Bell Canada, Vonage, Twitterfone, Hawaiian Telcom, and the Asterisk Open-Source PBX. Her Web site is www.theivrvoice.com.
