Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by mutaz on August 24, 2008 at 10:20am

hi donna well im not a coffe shop owner but worked in jerusalem for 4 years as a barista. my advice is to see what customer you serve if they are youth maybe its nice to put house trance music if they are not youth some jazz or slow music will be fine

Permalink Reply by Dave Shikiar on September 1, 2008 at 2:28pm

Hi.
Why don't you like Sirius? I have a business launching in Q4 that supplies artistic video content and music. (We pay for it) It's ad supported and we have rev share with shop owners. I'd be interested in hearing your comments

Permalink Reply by Sam Granger on September 29, 2008 at 10:09am

Pandora.com

It's free, and you can make your own stations commercial free.

Example:
So if you want jazz artists that sound like Miles Davis, create a "Miles Davis" station and they pick music that sounds like him.

Hope that helps,
Sam
That's what we did in my coffee shop when pandora first came out.

Permalink Reply by Mellisa on October 5, 2008 at 12:12pm

We use cds in a 5 cd player. I start the mornings with Frank Sinatra, some big band, a few oldies from the 50s and by then, change the player at noon to some instrumental guitar which works forward to cds with some sixties and seventies music and time it so that at 4 pm I can switch to the more modern as the kids come in. Some of my customers will pop in at different times of the day and comment on it. (They like it). Others have asked what radio station I use because they can't find it on their dial.

It just depends on your customer base and what age group comes in at what time of the day. Also, are they wanting to talk or listen to music? If they want to talk, stick to instrumentals and don't go too loud.

Missie

Permalink Reply by Liberty on October 10, 2008 at 5:30pm

Hmm. "subscribe to a service". Yes. Of course. One has to. One would be breaking the law otherwise...

The biggest question is what your customers will be like, and thus - what kind of music you should have. The good thing (if any) about those subscriptions is that you can have so many options available to you. But, say you want to hear some Band of Horses one minute, and then maybe Black Sabbath the next... Not many services will really help you out with that quandary.

Have an iPod by chance?...not that this would be legal........

"Pandora.com It's free, and you can make your own stations commercial free."

Yeah, but then she needs to have a laptop or computer available...

"We use cds in a 5 cd player."

I've heard of those. Are those the ones made out of that black plastic or the clear stuff? I forget...

Permalink Reply by Janice on December 1, 2008 at 2:05pm

Actually, I am pretty sure that any type of retail establishment under 3750 square feet doesn't have to worry about paying out licensing fees. Its called the "Fairness in Music Licensing Act". Basically, you can play songs off your Ipod and its not breaking any law.

Permalink Reply by Ricky Johnson on December 12, 2008 at 8:45am

I always think the best solution is to create CDs or an ipod full of your own choices. Music is incredibly important to the feel of your shop and it's really worth thinking hard about what your customers want to hear at the different times of the day. Don't forget too that what they want to hear is very often different to what your staff want to hear. It's a delicate balancing act.

Permalink Reply by Stephen Schulman on December 15, 2008 at 4:47am

I agree. I always like to find a combination of music for a shop. The music on Sunday morning needs to be different on Saturday night. I have had good response with some novelty music like old TV theme songs. As others have said, you can check out the crowd and try to accommodate them.

Permalink Reply by John Owens on December 27, 2008 at 6:18pm

Janice:

You are partially correct. Most restaurateurs are required by the Copyright Act to pay performance-related organizations for license agreements for the privilege to play music. However, restaurants under 3,750 gross square feet are exempt from paying royalties on radio and television music only (Public Law No. 105-298, which amended 17 U.S.C. 110(5).).

NOTICE, this ONLY applies to radio and TV music. If you'd like to play your CDs or use your iPod, you are required to pay licensing fees.



Janice said:

Actually, I am pretty sure that any type of retail establishment under 3750 square feet doesn't have to worry about paying out licensing fees. Its called the "Fairness in Music Licensing Act". Basically, you can play songs off your Ipod and its not breaking any law.

Permalink Reply by Jarod on January 19, 2009 at 9:28am

We actually did a blog and allowed the public to submit suggestions as to what they thought we should play. It ended up being very productive as we got a lot of ideas for music and some other blog sites picked up what we were doing and promoted it for us as well. Here is a link to our blog on the topic. And since we are in Nashville, we absolutely pay our licensing fees. A good thing to do to support the artists and be compliant.

http://uglymugsnashville.typepad.com/ugly_mugs_coffee_tea/2008/07/c...

Permalink Reply by Donna King on January 20, 2009 at 4:57am

Thanks for all your great replies.

I've been playing music off my ipod - about 500 songs rotating - some frank sinatra, diana krall, jeff buckley, eva cassidy, some bluegrass instrumental, jann arden, leonard cohen, old blues, a real mix. We've had some good comments. Seemed the easiest way to go. I just keep it rotating.

I'm aware that the royalty thing may come into play one day, but I seriously doubt anyone is gonna show in my small town. If they did I'd just plead innocence.

I had a retail store in Vancouver, Canada for 10 years and no music cops ever showed up. Actually a friend of mine worked for the Canadian compliance group and she said we needed to comply but we never did. Then again, we only played what we sold - maybe that's different.

Permalink Reply by Clayton Benjamin Burton on January 22, 2009 at 12:45pm

Sorry, but you're dead wrong. This is a popular misconception about the FMLA, which covers only broadcast radio and TV transmissions, not music from CDs, iPods, webcasts, etc.

Janice said:

Actually, I am pretty sure that any type of retail establishment under 3750 square feet doesn't have to worry about paying out licensing fees. Its called the "Fairness in Music Licensing Act". Basically, you can play songs off your Ipod and its not breaking any law.

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