Music police move on doctors, dentists
 

Offices threatened with song fees

Dentist Dennis Leung plays the radio in his office to calm nervous patients, but now Leung, and others running businesses that use background music, are being told to pay copyright fees.

The non-profit Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), which collects royalties for musicians, is warning dentists, chiropractors and opticians who play music during working hours that they need to have a licence to do so.

http://www.canada.com/winnipeg/story...9-DEDFB591A423

it's a little different in the states but not much. if you're using two speakers or less you don't pay fees. but i'm with the guy quoted in the article; if you're playing the radio and the station has already paid the composers thier fees, then they don't deserve a second helping. it's one thing to have a business that attracts people because of the music but it's a real stretch to say dentists are profitting from the compositions. many use "white noise" to calm thier patients anyway and that works as well as better than songs, so you could make a case that music might drive away customers. socan should be careful using logic based solely on profit and loss. they might find themselves in a situation where they wind up paying the dentists, or better yet the patients! :D

- js.

maybe malls,elevators,supermarkets..etc play that horrible shopping center music ,because they get it cheap?

a lot of supermarkets and the local market i go to seem to have the radio on ...i wonder if they pay?