PRS for music

blakeywolf

Hello........I need some advice, i run a small business and the PRS keep calling me to say i need to pay for a lisence to have a radio on in my office/ showroom/ play cds, is this true or is all some elaborate lie?/ rip off thingy??
any help?? / advice?? they phone me about twice a week at the moment and it seems quite pricey like £200 a year???

McKneff

Yes, they are legit, it is a requirement in the law to have a licence to play music in the workplace or where the public can hear it.

Have a look at their website - it explains it better there.

You even have to have a licence to play 'music on hold' on the telephone.

blakeywolf

really? even if its just a radio on in the office, don't we already pay license fees for that? Is thisa law that is being enforced? Does anyone know of anyone whos been fined or anything??

Poolie

TV License covers the listening of music for personal use. If you use if within your business (ie as a broadcast) or on the telephone system then you are required to pay the PRS payments

Moonbeam

Definately legit. They do big crackdowns every so often on places - in particular hairdressers/salons etc. You need to have a license.

McKneff

This pays the royalties (or so we are told) to the perforners of the music you and your public are listening to and has nothing to do with the TV licence.

paulwf

See http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=583965&highlight=prs for more info on this.

The price will depend on several factors such as number of staff, square footage, if the radio has a separate speaker etc so the price will depend on what figurres you give them

mooner48

we have a workforce of about 20 and my boss has been paying £200 p/a so we can have radios on. After a recent visit by some local council jobsworth he is now expected to pay £700 p/a . Needless to say we can no longer have the radio on at work. Silly thing ,instead of squeezing more money out of us, by their greed they have now lost £200 a year.

Halloway

mooner48 wrote: »

we have a workforce of about 20 and my boss has been paying £200 p/a so we can have radios on. After a recent visit by some local council jobsworth he is now expected to pay £700 p/a . Needless to say we can no longer have the radio on at work. Silly thing ,instead of squeezing more money out of us, by their greed they have now lost £200 a year.

What do the local council have to do with the PRS?

pitkin2020

they have a duty to ensure a business has all the relevant licenses

djbilly_2

We use royalty free music radio rfmradio,co,uk for our music source in the shop I work in.
They use professional Djs to create entertaining shows with all the music being from unsigned singer songwriters. NO prs or PPl fees.
They now sell CDs of the shows for businesses without internet access.
And its not full of adverts every few minutes.

Thanks