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PRS Demands License Fee To Play Music To Horses
An anonymous reader writes "A woman in Bushton, Wilts, has been told by the Performing Rights Society (PRS for Music) that she needs to pay an annual fee in order to play classical music from the radio to the horses in her stable, something that she has been doing for the past 20 years.
The PRS claims that it's not about the horses — rather, it's about her staff of over two people, which puts Mrs. Greenway in the same category as shops, bars and cafes.
'The staff are not bothered whether they have the radio on or not, in fact they don't particularly like my music and turn if off when I'm not around,' said Mrs. Greenway, 62. 'Especially on windy days I try to play it — it gives [the horses] a nice quiet atmosphere, you can only exercise one horse at a time so it helps the others to stay calm. We are right next to the RAF Lyneham air base so it dulls the noise from the aircraft as well.'"
She is already tuning to a local Classic FM radio station, from what i had read she isnt even playing her own CD's, tapes etc.
brb, I'm setting my radio now to max volume and pointing it at the street. Now if everyone would just do the same...
She should simply stop. Get a buttload of dirt cheap CDs in the bargain basement bin for $0.99 each, or better yet, get a lot more stuff off a site such as Magnatune or an Internet radio station, and let the PRS rot in hell in total irrelevance. I think they've completely lost the concept that they need this woman, in actually having an avid listener, a hell of a lot more than she needs them.
As is evident by their long faces.
She should tape a few hours of music from the radio, then play it backwards to the horses. That way, she's not playing any actual RIAA music to anybody, (and the horses probably won't understand the subliminal messages anyway).
They'll all be depressed when they think Paul is dead!
Copyright laws do distinguish between the work, and the performance thereof.
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Send £99 worth of horse shit to the PRS. Tit-for-tat.
Wilts is short for Wiltshire, which is in the UK. Let me Google that for you, just to confirm.
It's fine to list a state or county in lieu of listing a country, when it's made clear elsewhere in the summary that this took place in the UK.
"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." - Tolkien
I, for one, think the horses should pony up and pay. Musicians need the cash.
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Horse headphones.
Not if you play them his last four albums.
Blank until
Not if you play them his last four albums.
Right - then they will be sure.
Lets just all agree to pretend that Britain doesn't exist.
Ear plugs for ALL humans within shouting distance of the barn
There is more than enough public domain classical music (remember that in Europe it's only 50 years for performers). So find some Mozart recorded more than 50 years and tell them to go to hell.
This is insane! It's like we are going back to the dark ages...
I just can't imagine that there are people sitting some where in a room that can actually think of ways like this to milk innocent people for more money.
Ah - and now you will tell me that the devil made them do it - and for once we all might agree on /. :-)
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Hello, I'm the original submitter. Sorry I didn't think of adding UK after Wilts. I thought people would figure out from the insanity of the story that these were the British we were talking about.
Let's not forget the time the PRS sued the police! This is all getting rather silly.
I have a business at my home with me being the only employer. But I received a letter from the SENA (equivalent of PRS) stating that I need to pay for music played in my own home, for my ears only. The letter showed 2 options: "1. I don't play music at all" and "2. I do play music, please send me a check". I missed the option "3. I have a private business in my home without any personnel so I can play any music I like for free, sod off". I complained about that and after a few months and several letters, I got the answer: "you're right sir, but most people pay anyway!" We're talking about 90 Euro each year minimum.
Please note that this SENA is backed by the government. It's a crooked world.
It might not be that big, but compared to the falling CD market, it's stable
29 mpg. YMMV.
But I play music for the dogs on Guy Fawkes night. The music distracts them from the sound of the fireworks. It would never have occurred to me that this could be a "public performance".
The thing that really annoys me about this is that the PRS wants you to pay for listening to publically-broadcast radio. The radio station has *already* paid the PRS, so this is double dipping. The PRS, incidentally, also wants you to pay if you listen to *talk* radio.
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We need a Listener's Rights Society, where we can be compensated for hearing music we DON'T want to hear. Think about it, how many times do you hear an awful song in a situation where you can't turn it off? And they want royalties for that?!
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Nothing could beat complete denial
- Emily Haines
so who ratted her out?
the PONYS?!??!?!
Different stations, with earplugs.
If only one person is listening to each radio, it's not a public performance any more.
And the stuff can listen to what they like, since they really don't like the classical. (Although, she would then have problems with some staff playing head-banger music loud enough to spook the horses through the plugs.)
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Sure, they could send an army of lawyers and bailiffs after her, but all she has to do in court is say she's unable to pay, and that will pretty much be that.
Considering it's "her stable" she may have difficulty showing that she doesn't have the assets to pay the fine or for the license that she will still need. If the ordinary small business can't cover its liabilities then it goes bankrupt and the creditors take its assets (it has to be a really big business before the government steps in and gives the failed business its creditors assets).
As others have pointed out, it's nothing to do with playing the music to the horses and everything to do with other members of staff being able to hear it. That needs a licence in England and Wales (don't know about Scotland). So scrub the stuff about horses; all this story is is "You need a licence to play a radio in an English workplace", which we don't like (although at least we no longer need a licence to operate a radio receiver anywhere) but isn't news.
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How big could the stable music market possibly be?
You'd be surprised. It's the next biggest market after house music and garage music.
Squirrel!
It also raises the question of whether you should write England or UK. I was taught to write England as a child, but UK seems to be common these days.
"England" and "UK" are different things. And "Great Britain" is different again. The most general designation is "UK", or, to give it its full designation, "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", from which you'll be able to work out that "UK" includes Northern Ireland, "Great Britain" is the rest of the country. Great Britain is, in turn made up of England, Scotland and Wales. Calling somebody from Scotland "English" is likely to go down about as well as calling somebody from the deep south of the USA a "Yankee".
England and Wales have a common legal system; Scotland and Northern Ireland each has its own legal system. So when talking about legal matters, it's best to be specific and say "England", "Scotland" or whatever. When referring to the country, it's "UK". The term "Great Britain" seems only to exist to piss off the Irish, as, for instance, when we refer to our Olympic team as "Team GB" thereby ignoring the Northern Irish contribution.
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