I was in with a client yesterday at their store, and they were playing our station over the in store speakers – I like that – but then I asked if they were aware of the Australian rules around playing the radio in-store… and they weren’t… well, what follows is what we discussed.
APRA and AMCOS (they are the group that help music creators get paid for their work and give people easy ways to legally play and copy music) website – HERE – APRA – or Australasian Performing Right Association and AMCOS – or Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society.
APRA AMCOS joined forces as OneMusic Australia in 2019 to give easy access to all their works, sound recordings, and music videos in one place, for one fee.
This includes any business like:
- Accommodation
- Cafes and restaurants
- Childcare
- Community halls
- Community music groups
- Events, concerts & entertainment venues
- Fitness, exercise & wellbeing
- Functions
- Funerals
- Local, state & federal government
- Places of interest
- Retail & service providers
- Workplaces, and more.
If you are a retailer, or any type of store that plays music (including the radio) instore – then you need to pay a licence fee.
The only way around this is if you are monitoring the radio station for your commercials – and believe me – if a representative from APRA/AMCOS/etc catch you playing music in-store, and you have not payed your fee – you will get charged. This includes any CD’s you own, or if you are playing a radio station.
We have come a long, long way from days of the old in-store music (or muzak), and if you can’t remember what that sounded like… then lets take a trip back in time to from the 1960s through the early 1980s, when department stores played mellow instrumental music that was supposed to encourage shopping. Fardemark on YouTube compiled nearly 90 minutes of this vintage stock music and recorded it onto an old cassette tape to best evoke the sounds of a bygone era.
and if you want more…
