Paying for the right to performance

Although the issue of copyright in televised football has dominated the news over the past few months, this is part of a much wider law which involves the licensed trade in paying for "rights".

Pubs are social and entertainment centres for the public at large, which means they are targeted by the music industry on a regular basis in terms of all types of sound recordings and performance.

My impression is that most landlords regard the playing of music as part of their everyday lives, from first thing in the morning until late at night.​

My impression is that most landlords regard the playing of music as part of their everyday lives, from first thing in the morning until late at night. It's as natural as breathing, they say, and after all, you don't have to pay for air.

The idea seems illogical to many that copyright can exist even in the sound waves which reach you and your customers, and that you as a licensee should be legally responsible at all for some kind of fee for putting them there.

In particular, new entrants to the trade are often surprised to learn that they require an additional licence for copyright music from day one - and they are even more shocked at the level of charges they are expected to pay.

But in spite of widespread publicity, many people within the trade still do not know or understand the legal basis for this licence charge, considering it an imposition best avoided. In particular, they think of the pub's radio as being for the benefit of the licensee in his or her own home. The fact that customers can hear it is immaterial, goes the argument - its main use is domestic.

The law on copyright was re-drafted in 1988. Neither the old nor the new law attempts to define what constitutes "public performance", but in general this is any performance which is "non-domestic". The term can therefore be applied to certain premises or circumstances where the public is not admitted, such as a private club or a work canteen.

Certainly, a public-house bar is covered by the general provisions on public admission, and if the copyright music can be heard by that public, it is liable for licensing.

The point about organisations such as the Performing Right Society (PRS) is that they exist to collect millions of individual copyright "fees" payable for each piece of music and distribute them to composers and arrangers, in proportion to the assessed amount of play.

Obviously, these organisations could not monitor every piece of music. But they make a fair attempt, by asking licence-holders to fill in returns and looking at jukebox data or the pop-music charts and evaluating what proportion should go to the individual musicians. The total fee is based on a number of factors to do with the type of music, the bar area and expenditure on music by the licensee. New rates for the tariff for public houses are agreed periodically with the trade, and can be subject to appeal. One important point to remember is that if the PRS discovers that you have no licence at all, it will charge you 50% extra for your enrolment for the first year - so it is always cheaper to contact them as soon as you take over a pub.

Although the PRS is the most widely known of copyright organisations, others do exist: Phonographic Performance, for example, licences public performance of copyright records, tapes and other mechanical media. The copyright of these may be held by a different person or company from the actual composer or arranger of the music, and the PRS licence does not cover it.