If you don’t currently play music in your pharmacy, you may have untapped branding and business potential. The presence of music in retail settings has been proven to influence customers’ mood and buying behavior. But before you plug in an iPod or tune in your radio, it’s important to understand the potential legal pitfalls of using music in your store.
Keeping it legal
To ensure that songwriters are properly paid for their music, copyright laws exist that require businesses to pay royalties to music artists. As a business owner, you can’t play music off CDs, MP3 players or through iTunes in your pharmacy, because that music has been licensed strictly for private use. And, unless your pharmacy is less than 2,000 square feet and uses fewer than four speakers, radio is also prohibited.
This may sound like a lot of work for a relatively trivial matter, but the repercussions of violating copyright laws are serious. Performance rights organizations represent music artists and thoroughly monitor use of their music in commercial settings. Hefty fines are doled out to businesses that play unlicensed music, and repeat infringements can result in extended jail time or fines reaching $250,000. But don’t start singing the blues. Thankfully, there are options available to businesses that want to play background music without encountering legal trouble.
Safer solutions
If you’re set on playing music from your personal collection, you‘ll need to work with a licensing company. BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) and ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) are two performance rights organizations that command a near-monopoly on music licensing. If you deal with them directly, you’d have practically every song imaginable at your disposal.
But the exorbitant price tags and sharp regulations that often accompany blanket contracts with these organizations make this an impractical option for most pharmacies. Instead, pharmacy owners may find that a music service, which offers licensed music for businesses and perks like pre-organized playlists by mood and genre, is a better option.
Music services for businesses
Cloud Cover Music
This company offers a spectrum of options that deliver straightforward playlists organized by genres. The basic service is likely the most cost-effective on the market, at $18 a month, and it doesn’t require the purchase of an expensive media player. Upgraded accounts allow you to deliver personalized messages between songs plus other perks. cloudcovermusic.com
Pandora with DMX
Lovers of Pandora, the free online music streaming company, will enjoy this option, which adapts the service for business use. For $25 a month (plus the one-time cost of a $99 DMX media player) you’ll get the familiar Pandora setup and user interface, plus commercial-free, timeout-free music. dmx.com/pandora
Rockbot
This innovative service offers more than 500 creative playlists. Customers can even request pre-approved songs and vote on playlists through their smartphones. This premium service comes at a cost of $40 a month, plus the optional $300 music player for pharmacists wanting a first-class experience. rockbot.com
SiriusXM
For $35 a month, fans of SiriusXM, the continuous satellite radio service, can use the service’s slate of commercial-free channels for business. To access the stations, you need either a computer with high speed Internet or a Sirius Radio, which ranges in price from $80-$200. siriusxm.com
Related articles:
How Playing Music Can Increase Front-End Sales
Front End, in Focus: Tips to Boost Pharmacy Front-End Sales
5 Types of Independent Pharmacy Shoppers
