You’ve downloaded a music streaming app to your phone, selected songs, added them to your playlist and your clients are enjoying the ambiance of the space. Sounds legal, harmless and maybe there has been no more thought to it, but did you know, most beauty business owners are doing this illegally, without even knowing it!
According to a recent poll in our Beaute Industrie Community, 4 in 5 beauty business owners have a premium paid subscription to a streaming service and are playing it in their beauty business.
We spoke with Creative Director of Designer Muzik, Madee River to gain further insight into the music world. “There is a great misconception amongst business owners and managers that the use of Streaming music services, such as Spotify or Apple music in their respective business is legal. To be blunt, It isn’t!”.
Platforms like Spotify and Apple music are a B2C business, meaning they are designed for personal consumer streaming, rather than for use in a commercial space.
Madee notes; ‘streaming music in your business via services such as Spotify or Apple Music is not only illegal, it also withholds a large portion of royalty income from recording artists, their respective record labels and publishers’.
Unfortunately paying licencing fees alone does not exempt you from the chopping board.
“Any businesses paying their annual license fees, such as APRA or PPCA may think that it’s then ok to use these streaming services, however this is yet another common misconception. In short, paying your annual license fees does not legalise the use of streaming services such as Spotify or Apple Music.”, Madee River explains.
Madee recommends “any business owner or manager should read ARTICLE 5 of Spotify’s user agreement. This clearly states that their service is not for commercial use. In fact using Spotify music in your business is not only breaching Australian copyright law, it’s also a direct breach of Spotify’s terms & conditions.”
So do we unplug the ipod and turn back to whale and insect sounds with pipe flutes as background music? We think not!
Instead, employ ‘a dedicated, licensed music curator who will directly cater for your brands specific music needs, and allow you to enjoy good music that’s suitable for your business – without the worry of breaching copyright’ says Madee.
Prior to publishing, Beaute Industrie recently partnered with Designer Muzik to create a playlist for its’ upcoming NSW networking brunch event to create a bespoke soundtrack to enhance attendee atmosphere. “The fact that the team at Designer Muzik were able to take our brand, understand it and create it’s sound based on our unique brief is so special.” – Tamara Shaw, Founding Director of Beaute Industrie.
Designer Muzik offers curated generic playlists or bespoke playlists specific to your brand, which will enhance your overall brand experience – all complete with copyright and licencing fees included to make sure you’re never in hot water!
To connect with Designer Muzik about creating your beauty business sound, email them here and tell them we sent you for a special Beaute Industrie discount.