Playing music in a shop

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  • #1
    I know I will need a licence to play music in a shop but what I want to know do you think it is necessary?
    I won't be playing loud music as my main customers will be parents, more than likely with children in tow. So it has to be cheerful, not too loud etc.Majority of my customers will be female and dancers.
    What do you think?
    I have to be able to concentrate too , especially when I am doing fittings etc
     
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  • #3
    Sorry I din't quite word it right! I know I need a licence what I want to know is do you think I actually need to play music in a shop? How would you feel walking into a shop with no background music playing?
     
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    S

    Speedymail

  • #4
    Too quiet is better than too loud is my managers policy, plus it has to be right for the store not personal preference. Background music is important to our sales enviroment. It keeps staff morale high and puts people at ease if their just browsing, they dont feel as if they are being observed I guess. We as staff definatley perform better saleswise if there is music in the background.

    What music to play, our company does compilations which they send monthly which I have to say are excellent. Everything from Outkast to Jamiroquay, Jamie Callum to the Kaiser Chiefs, and our customer age range is 10-80, and to my knowledge there haven been any complaints.
    The main thing being the volume is low enough to concentrate, high enough so customers can identify the song and be influenced by the "vibe" lol.
     
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    Glasskanvas

  • #6
    You do need a license, even if it's the radio..an entertainments license it used to be..not sure if it still is.
    ..In my opinion too quite can be as bad as too loud but that really depends on how many people are usually in the premises. A small shop with stone silence just makes everyone feel self conscious and awkward.
     
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    D

    Dawg

  • #7
    You do need a licence, even to play the radio.

    Playing music is very effective and music is a niche, but important part of shop floor merchandising. Someone I know in this field spent about £30k on cds just to research music for a high street chain, and then the chains pay the licence. If the big players take it this seriously, it should be a sign that it is important. I'm sure half an hour Googling would provide some illumination on all this.

    The money goes to the songwriters, (after the PRS has had a healthy cut), in theory to provide an income spread over years rather than just the year the music was released.
    It works well too, and keeps some songwriters alive. As Mick Jagger said a few years ago: "a million quid just doesn't last as long as it used to".
     
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    Stephen Berry

    Stephen Berry

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  • #8
    here's a site for PPL - re licence etc http://www.ppluk.com/ppl/ppl_cd.nsf/PDFs/$file/PPLinformationSheets.pdf

    The large retailers spend hundreds of thousands of pounds ensuring the most appropriate type of music - your brain wave patterns follow the music - you have no choice - it is an automatic neural reflex. So for grocers - Sainsburys, Tesco etc, they want low level music at the alpha/beta brainwave cusp to get you to linger and thereby buy more. The fashion retailers - Next / Topshop etc want more beta brainwave material so that you feel energised and 'trendy' - thereby likely to buy more of their product. The annoying queues on telephone helplines want soothing steady, low variation music at about 60 beats per minute to try to stop you hitting the roof whilst waiting for them to answer the phone.

    and .... fortunately for me, the large organisations with large internal training teams pay me (and some of my team) to train their trainers on which music to use and where to use it in training courses to maximise the appropriate neural activity and enhance information retention and recall.

    For you - the retailer experience is worth investigating, the training obviously not!
     
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    Matt1959

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  • #11
    I've got a customer with a big shop and he's given up trying to play ANY music. Obviously he hasn't got a licence and doesn't want to buy one (the money not the principle) The point I'm making is these Inspectors are red hot at sniffing errant shopkeepers out for this sort of thing!
     
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    Stephen Berry

    Stephen Berry

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  • #12
    INDIZINE said:
    I wonder if all the hairdressers and beauty salons and smaller retail outfits like clothes shops all have a licence. I'd guess the majority don't.
    Click to expand...
    They should have a licence and are liable to prosecution for playing any music without a licence - as are training providers.
    Simple rule - no licence - no music.
    The licence also has to be displayed - like a tax disc on a car, merely having it is insufficient - you also have to display it.
     
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    Blush

  • #19
    Thanks for all your useful replies, not too sure about the recording of ukbf members though:eek:
    I shall do some googling I think on this one.
    If the big boys spend so much time on researching this then I have some homework to do:cool:
     
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    D

    Dizzydiza

  • #21
    I like music while I shop but a few weeks ago I actually ask the shop assistant to turn down the music as I couldnt hear my self think! Apparently its shop policy to have the music as loud as possible but she was kind enough to oblige while I completed my purchase :)
     
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    A

    Alice3537

  • #25
    Blush said:
    I know I will need a licence to play music in a shop but what I want to know do you think it is necessary?
    I won't be playing loud music as my main customers will be parents, more than likely with children in tow. So it has to be cheerful, not too loud etc.Majority of my customers will be female and dancers.
    What do you think?
    I have to be able to concentrate too , especially when I am doing fittings etc
    Click to expand...

    I'd love a bit of music - and the 'not too loud' is 'music to my ears'!!!

    If the business can afford it, I'd say some background noise is a good thing. Especially if it sets the scene for the shopping experience!
     
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    maxine

    maxine

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    Cambs
  • #27
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    Sue F

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  • #30
    In my previous life I worked for the Inland Revenue on the facilities team.

    Our office had an enquiry centre on the ground floor where tax payers could call in an speak to a member of staff (back in the days when you could call in and speak to a human person).

    The post room was on the opposite wing of the ground floor and the staff in there were allowed to listen to the radio as they weren't in contact with members of the public either by phone or in person.

    We got a letter informing us that we would have to have a licence or stop playing the music as it was faintly audible from the enquiry centre ... and I do mean "faintly"!

    Needless to say the post room staff had their radio confiscated :(
     
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  • #31
    It really doesnt matter who can hear the music in a place of work, if a broadcast is allowed and this can be heard by more than one individual, then 1, possibly 2 licences are required, a much troubled and criticised licence and suprising how many business owners do not realise the requirement.

    Also, in the fine print on prs/mcps sites there is a section that states there is a minimum licence fee, think this is around the £72 mark but may be wrong there.

    Theoretically, self employed/subbies and the like infact anyone who plays music that could be heard by others could be broadcasting and technically liable to licence -- music on a scaffold, building site, vw-golf with windows open...

    Back to the original post.
    If the shop is for dance students (depending of the type of clothing you sell) you could compile playable music that would be exempt from the regulation.
     
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    W

    WorldSalon

  • #32
    I have a small hair salon and you actually need two licences to play any sort of music/radio. I display both certificates renewable annually, approx £200 in total.

    PPL (Phonographic Performance Ltd) represents record companies and performers. PRS (Performing Right Society) represents composers, songwriters and music publishers.

    Most people get the PPL and forget the PRS.

    I have my music audible but not too loud.
     
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    deniser

    deniser

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  • #37
    INDIZINE said:
    I wonder if all the hairdressers and beauty salons and smaller retail outfits like clothes shops all have a licence. I'd guess the majority don't.
    Click to expand...

    They do (hairdressers were targetted in our area a few years ago and were given hefty fines), we do and so does the very small hairdresser next door.

    We went for the cheapest option which with one licence is the radio. The other licence would have allowed CDs but we didn't want to pay more than the minimum so we keep it on the local radio. Why the two bodies can't amalgamate and issue one licence is beyond me.

    The second licence is from the PRS (performing rights society). I think one is for the composer, the other for the performer?

    Silence in the shop when someone walks in is just horrible!
     
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    deniser

    deniser

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  • #39
    visagephoto said:
    My local Chinese Takeaway displays a PPL licence, for a portable TV which is mounted on the wall above the counter.
    Click to expand...

    And then we get onto the subject of TV licences. They don't believe we don't have a TV on the premises (or a computer used for watching live TV) so are coming to do an inspection.

    On that subject, I've never tried to watch TV on a computer. Can you on any computer via the internet or do you need a special one?
     
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    Cornish Steve

    Cornish Steve

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  • #40
    A licence for this and a licence for that. In this case, is 'licence' a euphemism for another tax? In other words, who gets the money?

    On a practical note, I wish every store played music in its toilets. If there are only two actual toilets in the gents and both are occupied, both occupants often just sit there forever because, presumably, they don't want the other person to hear them 'going'. Sorry to be graphic, but you can wait forever for someone to break that vow of silence.

    Background music solves the problem - especially the following performance: http://video.google.com/videoplay?d...1&q=manualism&ei=E6ZSSLK6K4ry-wGN1f3DDA&hl=en
     
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