The crux of the Nightlife Industry is the exploitation of  licensed music.

Music Licensing is necessary to generate the royalties paid to the Owners of the Copyright Music. Copyright Societies collect royalties on behalf of their members. Publishers/Composers/Song-Writers/Performing Artists being the Owners receive the royalty amount from these organizations after deducting administrative costs of the agency. There have been instances where the legitimacy of these organizations were challenged in the court of law after the amendment of the Copyright Act 2012. The tension between the Music industry and Hospitality industry has been growing ever since regarding royalty payment and lack of it, which has led to many lawsuits. NRAI (Nation Restaurant Association of India) wrote letters (dated 9/12/15) addressed to PPL, IPRS AND NOVEX claiming that the said agencies are not registered as Copyright Societies under section 33A of the Copyright Law and thus cannot assert their right to grant and issue licenses. (Read here) The main role of a Copyrights society is to collect and distribute the royalties fairly among the owners. Copyright societies have been notorious and have many cases of wrong doing registered against them. There have been irregularities with the collection and distribution of the royalties and have also Money Laundering to Fraud cases registered against them.

But what happens when Copyright free music is played at an establishment or venue?

"Well ideally when copyright free music is being played, there are no licenses required. In such cases, even when the venue asks for the licenses, the organizer has the right to refuse to purchase as they're not applicable since the PPL and Novex organizations have authority only over licensed music. However, for any artist performing live, even in the case of a DJ, an IPRS license is required since that protects the rights of the performer." - Ajay Thadani (Client Servicing Manager at Encompass Event Pvt ltd. Member of WPP Group.)

FHRAI (The Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India) had challenged the IPRS and PPL's additional licensing fee during special event dates like New Year's Eve and Christmas which they lost in court. A common problem faced by many establishment owners is that they end up spending more on Licensing fees due to multiple agencies asserting their right to collect royalties.  This is mainly due to sheer ignorance of Music Licensing and also failing to comply with the guidelines given by the licensing society.

" They (Copyright Societies) have a fixed straight forward procedure of submitting an application with details of the event and supporting letters. On the basis of which they share a quote, and once the payment is made, the license is provided. This is usually completed within a span of 3-4 days. The only problem faced is from the venue end when sometimes the venue authorities don't understand that certain licenses are not required for certain kind of events and acquire them without understanding which licenses are actually required for the particular type of event." - Ajay Thadani

Changing Times

This chaotic phase of licensing has passed in the last few years and it has become more streamlined now. The Central Government of India recently re-registered IPRS as a copyright society on 28th November 2017. (Read below) [embed]https://spicyip.com/2017/12/iprs-gets-re-registered-as-a-copyright-society-akthar-saregama-bury-the-hatchet.html[/embed] Javed Akhtar's appointments as the new IPRS chairman after withdrawing his complaint against them has brought about a positive change to the IPRS and many are optimistic about their future dealings with this agency. In Feb 2017, The Junk Yard Café Bandra got served with two FIRs from Novex Pvt LTD (Copyrights Society) for playing unlicensed music which belonged to their clients Yash Raj and Zee Music. The law with respect to Bollywood and especially Hindi Film Music is stringent and all establishments catering to Bollywood music adhere to the specified guidelines when it comes to licensing and royalties.

"What needs to be done is the compulsion of acquiring these licenses. The licenses are required by the venue since they have to deal with the authorities. The responsibility of acquiring these licenses falls upon the organizer. All of this is so because the artists shouldn't face any troubles in these procedures. However, there are times when due to issues from any party involved, the artist is also affected for no fault of his. Thus losing out an opportunity to perform." - Ajay Thadani

Guidelines

1) It is important to make more people aware of Music Licenses and their various types. 2) The licensing process should be hassle free without any harassment from the officials. 3) The applicant should be well aware of the type of License he will be needing with respect to the tariff plan. 4) The Copyright society and the establishment should always be on the same page. 5) Annual Licensing amount needs to be pre negotiated 6) Stand should be taken for one common copyrights society respected and followed by all. 7) Amendment of old licenses like Performance Storage License which is basically royalty fee paid to store music on a device.