Licensed Music for Your Business

Need To Know: Licensing Information

What music service do you use for your business? Did you know you must pay for licensing rights in order to play music for your customers? Commercial use of personal digital music streaming services, such as Pandora One or Spotify, and the unlicensed use of a personal music collection (i.e. MP3’s or CDs) are both illegal and subject to significant legal and financial penalty. Jukeboxy’s founders, who are also passionate musicians, are committed to honoring the legal rights of the publishers and musicians that create the music that we listen to every day.

To address an increase in digital music distribution in the very late 20th century, U.S. Lawmakers created the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) in 1998 to cover digital “public performance” of music in businesses to ensure artists, authors, composers, and publishers involved in music production receive their due rights. Not only does a business owner need to pay for a copy of the song, but also for music, lyrics, and, with the creation of the DMCA, the business owner must also pay for the right to perform the song publicly.

Many business owners are unaware of these developments, and many do not know that personal Pandora, Spotify, or an unlicensed music collection cannot be used in a commercial setting. In the past few years, there have been several high-dollar lawsuits between businesses and performance rights organizations ranging to tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Business owners deserve 1. To be fully aware of licensing regulations and 2. To have easy licensing solutions available to them.

You can find an online copy of the DMCA here