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Bombay High Court plays party pooper on New Year`s eve: The Hindustan Times
Mumbai, Jan 01: The Bombay High Court has just played party pooper. The court has ordered hotels to pay royalties to music companies whose music they would play at their New Year Eve parties. The amount? Rs 70,000 (as fine for failure to pay licence fee), to be deposited with the Phonographic Performance Limited, the sole authority in the country that administers the broadcasting, telecasting and public performance rights and collects licence fee on behalf of the music industry.
Mumbai, Jan 01: The Bombay High Court has just played party pooper. The court has ordered hotels to pay royalties to music companies whose music they would play at their New Year Eve parties. The amount? Rs 70,000 (as fine for failure to pay licence fee), to be deposited with the Phonographic Performance Limited, the sole authority in the country that administers the broadcasting, telecasting and public performance rights and collects licence fee on behalf of the music industry.
Several top ranking hotels in Mumbai failed to pay the licence fee to PPL by December 30 for their New Year revelries. Among them are JW Mariott, Le Meridien, The Intercontinental Grand (both at Sahar), the Marine Plaza at Marine drive and The Residency at Juhu.
PPL thus took them to court and faced with the collapse of their New Years eve -- JW Marriott is charging Rs 7,500 per person, Le Meridien Rs 5,000 minimum with more for more (like free alcohol for the higher end _ Rs 9999). The Interncontinental also has a with a three tier celebration depending on the goodies provided ? they may have no option but to cough up the dough.
According to PPL CEO Vipul Pradhan, considering that they are all sold out, the music companies thought it only fair to demand their licence fees. The Taj and the Oberoi in Mumbai cough up Rs 50,000 to Rs 100,000 in licence fees to just play the music for New Year's events in each room. Other events are charged separately.
"Compared to the international fee structure, our rates are dirt cheap," Pradhan told the Hindustan Times. "The lesser graded hotels, of course, pay less in licence fee. Yet they refused to cough up the money. They refused to respond to our letters as well as our legal notices. That is why we had to approach the court at the last minute," Pradhan added.
Faced with the High Court order now most of the hotels have no choice. If they don't fall in line PPL's vigilance squads might just be the surprise gate crashers at their parties, shutting off all the music for the night. The PPL has also raised a vigilance squad in New Delhi which will raid hotels who have refused to pay up the licence fees, which in any case might be much lesser than the Rs 70,000 the court has ordered for violation of the law by Bombay hotels. However, the penalty can extend to a fine of about Rs 2 lakh and imprisonment of upto three years.
"We just had to do this," says Pradhan. He expects that they will pay up before midnight.
When contacted, the hotel companies preferred silence to comment.
All music companies including HMV, Magnasound, Universal, BMG Crescendo, Sony are part of PPL. It is mandatory for all those who play pre-recorded music in public places to pay a licence fee to PPL, a sister concern of the Indian Music Industry (IMI) which largely concerns itself with piracy issues. In fact, IMI is all set and prepared with its vigilance officers and the Mumbai police to shut down the music should the revelries begin without the deposit of the fees.
The copyright law is such that except for your home and car, any music needs to be paid for again and again? even if you have already emptied your wallets for the CD or the tape. In fact, hotels and airlines have been paying annual licence fees each year for music played in rooms and on aircraft. Apart from this any special event by the hotels require payment of an additional fee. But some of the reputed hotels in Mumbai who had announced great plans for the New Year locked horns with PPL when it demanded the new year's licence fee. "For every special event that uses music, they have to take a licence from us," says Sowmya Choudhury, Business Manager, PPL.
The reason as Chowdhury puts it is, "Most of these hotels are charging a bomb from the public as entrance fee and other charges for being a part of the new year celebration. DJ's playing music is the main attraction at all these parties. So share with us also the part of the proceeds."
When they pay extra for the visible things like equipment, lights, and other arrangements made for the celebration why should they not for the music which may not be visible but nevertheless is the main ingredient that earns them huge money, he asks.
PPL's other major success has been when it forced the students of Xavier's College this year to pay up for their annual college festival 'Malhar'. The festival touted as the best organised by any college in the city attracts some big names in the industry as sponsors. PPL demanded licence fees as the music was not being played only for its students and teachers but others also. "In this case, music is entertainment, not education. So better pay for it," Chowdhury said.
PPL thus took them to court and faced with the collapse of their New Years eve -- JW Marriott is charging Rs 7,500 per person, Le Meridien Rs 5,000 minimum with more for more (like free alcohol for the higher end _ Rs 9999). The Interncontinental also has a with a three tier celebration depending on the goodies provided ? they may have no option but to cough up the dough.
According to PPL CEO Vipul Pradhan, considering that they are all sold out, the music companies thought it only fair to demand their licence fees. The Taj and the Oberoi in Mumbai cough up Rs 50,000 to Rs 100,000 in licence fees to just play the music for New Year's events in each room. Other events are charged separately.
"Compared to the international fee structure, our rates are dirt cheap," Pradhan told the Hindustan Times. "The lesser graded hotels, of course, pay less in licence fee. Yet they refused to cough up the money. They refused to respond to our letters as well as our legal notices. That is why we had to approach the court at the last minute," Pradhan added.
Faced with the High Court order now most of the hotels have no choice. If they don't fall in line PPL's vigilance squads might just be the surprise gate crashers at their parties, shutting off all the music for the night. The PPL has also raised a vigilance squad in New Delhi which will raid hotels who have refused to pay up the licence fees, which in any case might be much lesser than the Rs 70,000 the court has ordered for violation of the law by Bombay hotels. However, the penalty can extend to a fine of about Rs 2 lakh and imprisonment of upto three years.
"We just had to do this," says Pradhan. He expects that they will pay up before midnight.
When contacted, the hotel companies preferred silence to comment.
All music companies including HMV, Magnasound, Universal, BMG Crescendo, Sony are part of PPL. It is mandatory for all those who play pre-recorded music in public places to pay a licence fee to PPL, a sister concern of the Indian Music Industry (IMI) which largely concerns itself with piracy issues. In fact, IMI is all set and prepared with its vigilance officers and the Mumbai police to shut down the music should the revelries begin without the deposit of the fees.
The copyright law is such that except for your home and car, any music needs to be paid for again and again? even if you have already emptied your wallets for the CD or the tape. In fact, hotels and airlines have been paying annual licence fees each year for music played in rooms and on aircraft. Apart from this any special event by the hotels require payment of an additional fee. But some of the reputed hotels in Mumbai who had announced great plans for the New Year locked horns with PPL when it demanded the new year's licence fee. "For every special event that uses music, they have to take a licence from us," says Sowmya Choudhury, Business Manager, PPL.
The reason as Chowdhury puts it is, "Most of these hotels are charging a bomb from the public as entrance fee and other charges for being a part of the new year celebration. DJ's playing music is the main attraction at all these parties. So share with us also the part of the proceeds."
When they pay extra for the visible things like equipment, lights, and other arrangements made for the celebration why should they not for the music which may not be visible but nevertheless is the main ingredient that earns them huge money, he asks.
PPL's other major success has been when it forced the students of Xavier's College this year to pay up for their annual college festival 'Malhar'. The festival touted as the best organised by any college in the city attracts some big names in the industry as sponsors. PPL demanded licence fees as the music was not being played only for its students and teachers but others also. "In this case, music is entertainment, not education. So better pay for it," Chowdhury said.