Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!know!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request
From: macy@fmsystm.uucp (Macy Hallock)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Music On Hold (was Data vs Voice)
Message-ID: <12856@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 30 Sep 90 23:59:00 GMT
Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu
Organization: F M Systems, Inc.  Medina, Ohio USA  +1 216 723-3000
Lines: 36
Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 701, Message 2 of 11


In article <12745@accuvax.nwu.edu>:

[Discussion of bandwidth vs. channel use in progress...]

>Not necessarily, BUT there should be a HUGE, financially crippling
>charge for those companies that employ the usual muzak-on-hold,

Well, actually there is.  ASCAP charges $100/yr per trunk for
licensing rebroadcast or use of recorded material (as of the last time
I checked).

Muzak and other music services do charge for the use of their
material.  (Although I suspect a lot of it gets hooked up by
installers without regard to contractual obligations....)  Last I
heard, Muzak charged around $5/mo per trunk in this area.

You can get recorrded music with the correct clearances for this use,
but few people are willing to pay the freight.

The actual number of locations paying proper license fees for the use
of music on hold is rather low, I suspect.  Considering ASCAP's often
agressive enforcement activity in metropolitan areas in the past, this
is a bit surprising.  And yes, I have run into them...but for music
over paging systems, not MOH (Music On Hold).  And I do warn my
customers ... not all listen, though.


Macy M. Hallock, Jr.     macy@NCoast.ORG      uunet!aablue!fmsystm!macy


[Moderator's Note: Did any of you see Bob Green's column in the Sunday
papers over the weekend? He said some legal beagles are hitting on
some guy in a small town in Indiana (population 800) because the guy
has a radio in his store and listens to the music on the radio
in-between customers. They are trying to sue him for big $$.  PAT]