Prisons And Hair Dressers Latest To Push Back On Ridiculous Collection Society Demands

from the pay-to-listen dept

We've noticed lately that music collection societies have been going overboard in demanding more and more money from pretty much anyone who listens to music, claiming "public performances" and assuming that they're worth a lot more than they really are -- almost everywhere you turn. mikez sent in two new stories about collection societies -- both involving operations pushing back on the demands.

The first involves prisons in the UK who are refusing to pay the licensing fees, and thus are telling prisoners (hey look, real thieves!) that they can't listen to music any more in any area where multiple people might be (the kitchen, workshops, restrooms, etc.) since others might overhear it. Yes, listening to music in a prison apparently requires a separate performance license.

The second story involves Spanish hairdressers who are similarly refusing to pay and, instead, are telling customers to bring their own MP3 players to listen to their own music, privately.

The really ridiculous thing is that in both cases all this is really doing is harming musicians. When places play music, it actually acts as advertising for that music -- and these collection societies are basically demanding to be paid for having people promote the music of various artists. So the artists get less promotion and don't get money from places like the examples above refusing to pay. Everyone loses!

Filed Under: collections, hair dressers, music, prisons, spain, uk