ASCAP, The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and BMI, Broadcast Music Incorporated, are
the two non-profit organizations in the
country sanctioned by Congress to collect
and disburse royalties from businesses that use commercial music. It doesn't
matter what kind of business uses it --
whether it's a car dealer, radio station,
night club, grocery store, law office or
fruit stand -- the fees are supposed
to be paid. The rationale is:
A business using music
on hold to create a pleasant environment
for callers so they will be more likely
to buy products and/or services from that
business is using music for commercial
purposes so it must have
"permission" from the copyright
holder. This is obtained via payment of a
licensing fee.
Both ASCAP and BMI determine their
fees based on the number of "central
office" (CO) telephone lines
entering a business location
Failure of
a company to take these licenses can
result in ASCAP or BMI taking legal
action for copyright
infringement.
The penalties can
be quite severe particularly if the
organization pursues criminal charges.
Most radio
stations "narrowcast." That is, their
music is targeted to one specific
demographic or psychographic segment of
the total population. Unless all of your
callers fit into one of these "radio
segments," chances are most
of your callers are not
going to like the music the station has
selected for them.
With a
radio on hold, your callers will also be
subject to commercials for other
businesses (possibly even for your
competitors), tasteless jokes,
horrifying news events and aggravating
EBS test tones.
Guess
what?! Now there's a third one. Another
licensing organization is rapidly gaining
in popularity among writers and
publishers: SESAC. You might want to
click on it and check it out, too.
With the
addition now of SESAC, combined licensing fees can
run to $900 per year for a medium-size
business just to have a
radio on hold. Make
sense? Of course not.
Hold On AMERICA
's music is produced
especially for use on hold and all music
fees are included in our charges. With a Hold
On AMERICA
system you are free from
music hassles. When you can have custom
music designed specifically to appeal to your
callers
and messages about only your
business…for far LESS than ASCAP, BMI and SESAC fees…it just
doesn't make sense to put a radio on
hold.
General
information regarding copyright law can
be obtained from the Library of Congress
in
Washington, D.C.
Why
bother with radios? Let
develop the perfect marketing program
for your "hold" button.
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