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Post by swtexan on Jan 9, 2017 19:19:52 GMT
For those of you who do not have music provided by Snap, what do you do for music in your club? Since I purchased a Snap that was opened in 2007, I simply use the receiver provided and play the radio in the gym. I also have discovered that there is a fee associated with playing a radio, or any music source, in a business. Does anyone else pay this fee? Just curious. Thanks.
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Post by patdaddy on Jan 9, 2017 20:31:00 GMT
I have Sirius XM in 2 gyms. Expensive but you are covered for all copyrights. Runs $359 year. Another option I've heard is to do a Spotify account, download a bunch of songs to a playlist onto a cheap tablet like a Kindle and play it offline.
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Post by Amy on Jan 9, 2017 21:35:35 GMT
Don't pay BMI or whoever. They will never come to your location. Just use the radio. It's free and they typical Snap location can't be dropping almost $400 just for music.
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Post by supercool on Jan 9, 2017 22:18:36 GMT
Don't pay BMI or whoever. They will never come to your location. Just use the radio. It's free and they typical Snap location can't be dropping almost $400 just for music. Correct. They tried to shake down a bunch of our locations a few years ago...we weren't even playing music in our club (no stereo, etc). They claimed we had to pay a fee, just to cover music "that may play during certain TV shows or commercials." (I'm seriously not making this up). I simply blocked their number and threw away their mailings. They never did a thing to us. |
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Post by yeeeee on Jan 9, 2017 23:30:22 GMT
Don't pay BMI or whoever. They will never come to your location. Just use the radio. It's free and they typical Snap location can't be dropping almost $400 just for music. Correct. They tried to shake down a bunch of our locations a few years ago...we weren't even playing music in our club (no stereo, etc). They claimed we had to pay a fee, just to cover music "that may play during certain TV shows or commercials." (I'm seriously not making this up). I simply blocked their number and threw away their mailings. They never did a thing to us. I too got this in the mail, by a company called ASCAP. I don't even play music in my gym but they say I still have to play because music plays over the TVs and I have over 3 TVs in my facility. I paid it last year because they threatened to send me to collections. Should I not pay this? Has anyone else come across them and not paid? |
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Post by supercool on Jan 10, 2017 13:04:53 GMT
I too got this in the mail, by a company called ASCAP. I don't even play music in my gym but they say I still have to play because music plays over the TVs and I have over 3 TVs in my facility. I paid it last year because they threatened to send me to collections. Should I not pay this? Has anyone else come across them and not paid? Yes. Don't pay. Just throw their mailings away. They will never take you to court because a negative judgement would totally ruin their shakedown scheme. |
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Post by youkiddingme on Jan 10, 2017 18:37:19 GMT
Years ago both ascap and BMI went after a lot of small gyms, each has a fee and if you pay one you need (or should) pay all. I think there are 4 licensing agencies so a lot of $. I actually looked up US copyright law and it appears gyms (businesses) of smaller size like ours are pretty exempt from the fees as long as you have 4 or less speakers and do not charge admittance for listening to the music. I actually wrote one of them saying I was exempt they came back and said we are a gym and charge a membership fee therefor we have to pay the fee. I responded I highly doubt a judge would back that statement that members pay a fee to listen to our music. From that point on I just ignored them and eventually they went away. We have 6 tv's but only use subtitles, no sound so they couldn't get me there either. Also we don't do classes, if you do classes and play music during them, then the area becomes more grey as to paying the fees.
We do use sirrus XM for business $29-30 a month that is supposed to pay the fees to the labels, yes it is $360 a year but I consider that way cheaper than the "licensing" fees the agencies charge and gives name a piece of mind that I am in some form of compliance. They have way more $ than I and can mess you up just filing against you. I have not heard a word from any agency in probably 3 years or so.
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Post by yeeeee on Jan 10, 2017 20:06:09 GMT
Years ago both ascap and BMI went after a lot of small gyms, each has a fee and if you pay one you need (or should) pay all. I think there are 4 licensing agencies so a lot of $. I actually looked up US copyright law and it appears gyms (businesses) of smaller size like ours are pretty exempt from the fees as long as you have 4 or less speakers and do not charge admittance for listening to the music. I actually wrote one of them saying I was exempt they came back and said we are a gym and charge a membership fee therefor we have to pay the fee. I responded I highly doubt a judge would back that statement that members pay a fee to listen to our music. From that point on I just ignored them and eventually they went away. We have 6 tv's but only use subtitles, no sound so they couldn't get me there either. Also we don't do classes, if you do classes and play music during them, then the area becomes more grey as to paying the fees. We do use sirrus XM for business $29-30 a month that is supposed to pay the fees to the labels, yes it is $360 a year but I consider that way cheaper than the "licensing" fees the agencies charge and gives name a piece of mind that I am in some form of compliance. They have way more $ than I and can mess you up just filing against you. I have not heard a word from any agency in probably 3 years or so. Good to know. I don't play music and only have sound on one TV so I won't be paying ASCAP this year. |
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Post by swtexan on Jan 10, 2017 20:59:23 GMT
Thanks all- your input is much appreciated.
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Post by fishstyxx on Jan 11, 2017 13:02:36 GMT
Most of your television service providers also include music channels with their packages. Typically like 40 or 50 music channels. For home systems I doubt most people use them. However, for a commercial location is easy enough to hook up your sound system to one of the receivers and use those channels for your music. The commercial fee you pay covers this. That way you never have to worry about anyone like ASCAP threatening you, just point them to your provider.
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