Hairdressers must pay to play music, SOCAN says
Last Updated: Thursday, July 19, 2007 | 4:20 PM ET
CBC News
Canadian hair salons are being asked to pay for the right to play music in their businesses, said SOCAN, the umbrella group for Canadian music composers.
The performing rights organization for music in Canada has sent out notices to hair salons across the country, urging them to pay a licensing fee or face legal action.
The law has always required that barbers and hairdressers pay to play music in public, said Serge Boutros, a SOCAN customer operations manager.
"Hairdressers happen to utilize music quite frequently and so currently, we are targeting hairdressing salons to educate them on the fact that they do require a licence if they are using music," he told CBC News.
The licensing fee varies according to the size of the salon, with a minimum cost of $94 per year.
SOCAN says it approached dentists last year with the same request.
What a country we live in
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What a country we live in
This almost made me gag this morning.
So now you have to pay to play the CD you just bought? And people wonder why bit torrent is so popular...
EDIT - Could this be interpretted as racketeering? We said pay. If you do not pay you will suffer negative consequences. Similar to paying somebody so your restaurant does not burn down? - EDIT...urging them to pay a licensing fee or face legal action.
Last edited by pika on Fri Jul 20, 2007 10:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
You can interpret that however you would like.
The dentists should make SOCAN pay them for marketing their music. You want me playing your music for my paitents, in my office, on my sound system so that they might become inclined to buy your CD, you have to pay me. If not, I'll only play music from indepentant artists who aren't members of your organization. In fact, I'll start selling their CD's in my office; just like Starbucks.
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It's just another money grab...
Conspiracy theorists unite. The record companies (who already grab a hugely disproportionate amount of the profit from the actual musicians through the record sales) aren't making enough profit so they want to find new ways to make people pay.
It's just like the car companies realizing that they could make everything optional and have you pay for all the extras... like wheels and paint colors.
I think they need to reduce the time that music is considered copyrighted property. If they haven't made their bundle within 5 years they aren't trying or the music sucks. Either way it should be considered part of the public property pool to be shared freely.
Conspiracy theorists unite. The record companies (who already grab a hugely disproportionate amount of the profit from the actual musicians through the record sales) aren't making enough profit so they want to find new ways to make people pay.
It's just like the car companies realizing that they could make everything optional and have you pay for all the extras... like wheels and paint colors.
I think they need to reduce the time that music is considered copyrighted property. If they haven't made their bundle within 5 years they aren't trying or the music sucks. Either way it should be considered part of the public property pool to be shared freely.
Having a standard that pilots lose their licence after making a mistake despite doing no harm to aircraft or passengers means soon you needn't worry about a pilot surplus or pilots offering to fly for free. Where do you get your experience from?