September 5, 2013 Is It Legal for Your Business to Play Music Over Its Sound System?
Music can help clients relax in a waiting room, make employees more productive and overall improve the workplace experience. However, in trying to provide your business with the right type of music, you may be running afoul of the law. Business owners must get permission of copyright owners (aka recording artists) when playing music in the office, reports BMI.
What’s Legal, What’s Not
To understand the legal line between listening to music at work and breaking the law, you need to understand what constitutes a public performance. Any time a large group that is not a family or acquaintances listens to music, it constitutes a public performance. If you’re listening to a CD in your office or a shared cubicle with headphones on, it is not a public performance. If you get your cubicle mate to listen to a new favorite song, it is not a public performance. If you are playing that same track for the whole office, it is a public performance.