Copyright questions

Toon

looking for some advice on basic copyright stuff......

1. When you play covers in a pub does the landlord or landlady have to acknowledge copyright for songs?
2. As a band do we have to pay copyright fees to a promoter if they are involved?
3. What are the general rules at a pub to allow live music? Do they always have to have a license and do they them pay the PRS for the privilege to do that?
4. Do we as a band have to take any specific actions in this area? Is it like acknowledging a copyright on a backing track or playing along to a background song in YouTube when you upload the video?
5. Last one - is there any relationship between copyright and public liability insurance etc?

Thanks in advance

uncledick

When I was in a band in the 70s we played a few really weird songs but our keyboard player did write some curious stuff.  Fast forward to about 2010 when I discovered that they were Jethro Tull tunes!!  Ignorance is no defence and all that...

maltingsaudio

Pub should have its own PRS licence for performance like wise a promoter should sort out PRS license and pay PRS fees I have never known of a case of the promoter charging bands PRS fees. Pubs should have a PRS licence  before a band plays there.

If you sell someone else's copy righted material or use it in a public performance where the customer pays to be there then you should have an agreement with the copyright owner to do that. Nb the copy right owner is not necessarily the composer/band

Copyright and Public Liability are totally unrelated.

EricTheWeary

FWIW I've never been asked to supply a list of songs. Venues should have a PRS licence, they will be wary of being in contravention of any form of licencing law. I wouldn't worry about it.

Some venues may insist you have public liability insurance, more might insist on PAT certificates for your electrical stuff. More likely to be wedding venues ( we were asked for them to play in the street because the council were supplying the electricity) than pubs though. 

uncledick

maltingsaudio said:

Pub should have its own PRS licence for performance like wise a promoter should sort out PRS license and pay PRS fees I have never known of a case of the promoter charging bands PRS fees. Pubs should have a PRS licence  before a band plays there.

If you sell someone else's copy righted material or use it in a public performance where the customer pays to be there then you should have an agreement with the copyright owner to do that. Nb the copy right owner is not necessarily the composer/band

Copyright and Public Liability are totally unrelated.

Does this mean that if it's free entry - like a pub gig - there are no copyright issues?  I've never come across anybody who has paid any fees - suppose I've never asked - how much are we talking about?

ESBlonde

The venue should be PRS complient, in larger venues you might be asked to provide a list of titles/publishers and writers because they are sampled and used to compile the statistics used to apportion the national collection of fees.
If you or anyone in the band are published writers, it might be prudent to add thier songs to the lists to bump them up the scale ;-)
Why would a promotor charge for PRS and not electricity or dressing room hire?

uncledick

I've Googled this and still can't find out how much it costs.  The only way is to apply and they'll invoice you  Someone on here must have an idea.  Ten quid?  Five hundred quid??  They did reckon that charity events are less, but not free, even if there's no admission fee.

ESBlonde

A typical PRS annual fee is hundreds and dependent on the number of people who can hear the output. Office for 4 people is cheaper than a small shop that has hundreds of visitors who 'enjoy' muzak. once they know about you they hound you annually and try to default upgrade your status and fees.
In principle it's a wonderful thing for us artists but the administration sometimes seems a bit 'close enough', not that I know of a better more efficient way.

hotpickups

A friend of mine who runs a small business and a couple of employees, has to pay PRS license just to play the radio or any cds in his premises apparently. It's still seen as a public performance of some kind

RocknRollDave

Yes, PRS charge on a sliding scale to do with square footage of the venue and how that is likely to relate to footfall (i.e. the number of people you are likely to be entertaining), as I understand it.

As for how that affects covers bands....I have never heard of a band ever having to worry about this or ever have to pay anything etc. Forget about it, it's not an issue.

EricTheWeary

They wouldn't pay for PRS in the office I worked in so we were told we couldn't put the radio on,etc, for fear of infringement of copyright.Biggish office building, I wonder how much PRS wanted.

hotpickups said:

A friend of mine who runs a small business and a couple of employees, has to pay PRS license just to play the radio or any cds in his premises apparently. It's still seen as a public performance of some kind

ESBlonde

EricTheWeary said:

They wouldn't pay for PRS in the office I worked in so we were told we couldn't put the radio on,etc, for fear of infringement of copyright.Biggish office building, I wonder how much PRS wanted.

hotpickups said:

A friend of mine who runs a small business and a couple of employees, has to pay PRS license just to play the radio or any cds in his premises apparently. It's still seen as a public performance of some kind

Medium sized factory with about 65 head count costs £850+Variable aggrevation Tax, no public admitance allowed. Thats just to have the radio on!

uncledick

hotpickups said:

A friend of mine who runs a small business and a couple of employees, has to pay PRS license just to play the radio or any cds in his premises apparently. It's still seen as a public performance of some kind

They tried that at our workshop.  I told them to send someone in and we'd discuss it.  That was 6 years ago...