Hospitality operators face $6,000 hike in dance music royalty fees
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 20, 2009
TORONTO – The Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association (CRFA) is fighting a new royalty fee for recorded dance music that would cost restaurants, bars and nightclubs upwards of $6,000 a year.
Under the proposal by the Neighbouring Rights Collective of Canada (NRCC), some hospitality operators will see their annual fees for playing recorded dance music skyrocket to as much as $30,000.
CRFA has started a petition against the new royalty fee, which can be found at www.crfa.ca.
“This proposal is punitive and illogical,” says David Harris, Senior Executive Vice President of CRFA. “If approved, this proposal will force many hospitality establishments to reconsider the use of dance music and possibly drop dance music altogether. How does that help the music industry?”
NRCC’s proposal is an additional fee for operators that would be levied on top of the royalty for dance music already charged by SOCAN, the Society of Composers Authors and Music Publishers of Canada. Under NRCC’s proposal, the new fee would be ten times higher than the royalty fee charged by SOCAN, despite the fact that SOCAN’s catalogue of music is 50% bigger. NRCC collects music royalties for performers and engineers.
“We look forward to fighting this proposal before the Copyright Board of Canada,” says Harris. “Canada’s hospitality industry not only plays music, but also introduces new music to customers – a valuable service that helps to promote sales. It’s time the music industry stopped acting like a monopoly and started treating hospitality operators like partners.”
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