Royalty free music?

[Stealth]

Not sure this belongs in business forum, but its a close match!

We've been approached by Performing Right Society to buy a license to play music- we stream a local radio station through to telephones when people are on-hold. I'd rather not pay anything, as times are tight at the moment. Is there a way around this without breaking the law? I assume royalty free music, can anyone recommend?

Thankies!

[keri]

I asked our phone consultants what music was safe to play for hold music and they said we should use classical, as the composer is probably dead so they can't claim copyright and it is very hard to tell who played it making it hard for them to claim against you.
Sounded too grey to me so we just stuck with plain silence with a beep every couple of seconds in the end.

[Tony]

you could have a look at somewhere like http://incompetech.com/ the guy there offers royalty free music and you might find something that is suitable for hold music - although answering the phone is often a better solution for the customer.

I had to pay for a PRS licence at work as sometimes we have the telly on. Wasn't worth arguing for £60 - means the external screens can only have subtitles on the telly or royalty free music and things that I've created in house - they asked how many people walked past the screens every day, 800-1000-1500 I don't bloody know, so I stuck to subtitles.

[Whatever]

Stealth.

There are specialist CD's available with royalty free music especially for music on hold systems.

The two we supply and use ourselves (which you most welcome to call and have a demo of) are:

Music on Hold CD (Set 1)    
•   Atmospheric Music
•   Classical Music
•   Contemporary Music

Music on Hold CD (Set 2)    
•   Classical & Contemporary
•   Easy Listening Music

Both have a dual set of tracks, one with voiceover (we apologise for keeping you waiting, blah, blah, blah) and one without. Keri, you're phone technicians need to be kicked in the butt or what they've said! The idea that classical music is safe due to the 'composer probably being dead' will hold no weight with the PRS as someone will undoubtedly hold the copyright to the music and it is them who would expect royalties. Would that mean I could now use Michael Jackson's music??  

There are also CD players made to work with phone systems and these CD's. Nothing special, just a jack output and programmable tracks.

Hope this helps,

Paul

[Scooby]

We've used this lot in the past...


http://www.royaltyfreeclassicalmusic.co.uk/

[Stealth]

Thanks Guys :-)
I think i'll buy one of the CD's, customers only hear the music after the phone has been answered and they are being transferred or on-hold, so i don't expect them to get a full song worth of listening.

[samhs]

if the recording is more than 50 years old without artist being alive == out of copyright. Cliff Richard has been campaigning against the previous 50 years old == out of copyright thing because he's got some of his back catalogue that's starting to fall into that category. Either way, don't stiff the musicians - use garage band or a free equiv to create your own music loop and use that if cash is tight.