Music use in store

54|Retail News|September 2014|www.retailnews.ie

Music Use In-Store

Striking the Right Note with Customers If you play music in your store via radio, TV etc, you need an IMRO licence, according to Brendan Griffin, Director of Licensing, IMRO. IF you are playing music in your store, you need a licence from IMRO (Irish Music Rights Organisation) to do so. Just like any other input into your business, the use of musical compositions has to be paid for.

When you use copyright music in your business, you must first obtain permission from the copyright owners to do so. You do this by obtaining and paying for an IMRO licence.

“It is a legal requirement,” explains Brendan Griffin, Director of Licensing, IMRO. “If you perform copyrighted music in public, and that copyrighted music is within IMRO’s repertoire, you need a licence from the copyright owner to perform that music.”

IMRO is a national organisation that administers the performing right in copyright music in Ireland on behalf of its members - songwriters, composers and music publishers and on behalf of the songwriters, composers and music publishers of the international overseas societies that are affiliated to it. IMRO’s function is to collect and distribute royalties arising from the public performance of copyright music.

IMRO exists to help businesses and community groups to legally access the worldwide repertoire of music in a cost effective and efficient manner, while making sure that songwriters, composers and music publishers are rightly rewarded for the public use of their music.

Music Adds Value “If you want to use music in your business, you are using it for a reason: that reason is because it adds value to your business,” Brendan notes.

“It hopefully will help you to obtain customers and as importantly, retain them. It is just like any other aspect of your store, from the façade at the front, the ambience inside or the product offering on the shelf: all are geared towards bringing customers through the doors to purchase your products or services and hopefully retaining them as customers. Music can help you to do

Brendan Griffin, Director of Licensing, IMRO.

that and an IMRO licence ensures that you get access to the best repertoire in the world, with every major songwriter and every major song composed, 365 days a year.”

So how much does it cost?

The licence fee for retail premises varies, depending on the size of the store. Brendan explains, “For a store that is 100 square metres, the fee is €144 for the second year of the licence onwards – the first year’s fee is 50% higher – which is less than 40c per day. As the store size increases, so

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Music Use In-Store sectors of the Irish economy are struggling. We’re all aware of the amount of retail businesses who have closed. If you walk down any main street around the country, you can see vacant units, so we have lost that business. Hopefully, these retailers will come back as the economy turns.”

does the fee. For a store that is 500 square metres, the cost is €358 per annum in the second year, and a 1000 square metre store would expect to pay €498.

However, if a premises just has a transistor radio on the counter, regardless of store size, the cost is €95 per year.” All prices quoted exclude VAT. All the money collected goes to the songwriters, composers and music publishers, once IMRO has deducted its administration costs, which are approximately 13% of royalties collected. “So 87% of the money goes back to the songwriters. The way we do that is by using logs

from radio stations, who are required to tell us all the music they play, alongside the charts, which let us know what music is popular in a particular year,” Brendan notes. “We use these criteria to determine which songwriters get the money.”

IMRO also regularly run songwriting workshops at their premises and encourage and foster upand-coming songwriters and artists to perform in venues throughout Ireland.

Some retailers will argue that if they are playing their own CDs, which they bought, they should not have to pay a licence fee. This, however, is not the case.

The Power of Song • 90% of people would select a shop that was playing music over one that was not.

• 60% of customers agree they would spend more time in a shop if they hear music they like.

• 55% would be more likely to return to a store that plays music they like.

• 23% would be prepared to pay 5% more for goods if music was being played while they shopped.

• 84% of shoppers like shops that play in-store music.

• 63% agree that playing music encourages customers to spend longer in-store.

• 79% say music helps create a better atmosphere for customers.

(Source: www.musicworksforyou.com)

“If you are performing music in public, which is anywhere outside the home, the owner of that song (the songwriter) is entitled to be recognised and recompensed for their creative endeavours,” Brendan notes.

“If you look at the small print on a CD, for example, you will see that the CD is sold for use in a private or domestic setting and not for public performance.”

The Fee Structure Given the straitened nature of our economy and the pressures on businesses, particularly those in the retail sector, who have seen margins squeezed relentlessly, many retailers argue that there are too many licences needed to operate in Ireland and that the cost of these licences is disproportionately high. Have IMRO looked at their fee structure, given the difficult trading environment?

“All our fees are linked to inflation,” Brendan says, “so when we had deflation a few years back, our fees fell. Inflation is very small at the moment, so our fee increases will be minimal.

We are very aware that all

Reducing the Administrative Burden When it comes to music, a store must have an IMRO licence and also a licence from the PPI (Phonographic Performance Ireland), who represent the owners of the recordings (i.e. the record companies). IMRO are part of the steering group of licensing authorities established by former Minister of State for Small Business John Perry TD, which aims to rationalise the amount of licences retail outlets need to operate in Ireland.

“We are delighted to contribute to that system, to reduce the administrative burden on retailers,” Brendan explains. “If we can help in that regard, we will do so.”

The Director of Licensing concludes by stressing the value of music to a store owner: “Music can help to retain customers in a store for longer, so they are browsing for longer and thus, it increases potential sales. There is no doubt that music brings value to the owner of the premises.

If it brings value, there is a value to it, and that is why we represent songwriters in a fair, transparent and reasonably priced manner.

Have a look at the voxpops on our website at www.imro.ie and hear how some of our customers use music to help them drive their business.”

IF you have any query regarding your need to hold an IMRO licence, please contact the IMRO Licensing Department at (01) 6614844, email licensing@imro.ie or see www.imro.ie/music-users/.