Anyone Must Pay For Music Royalties? Here's The List

YOGYAKARTA - Payment for music and song royalties has made many hotel and cafe entrepreneurs and autobus (PO) companies restless. Actually, who has to pay for music royalties?

Business owners and hotel management to cafes and public transportation highlighted the steps taken by the National Collective Management Institute (LMKN) which was aggressively withdrawing the payment of music royalties. They objected to the LMKN which was too harsh to collect the music royalties.

Some hotels and cafes, even buses, do not put up music anymore to avoid the obligation to pay for music royalties which are considered too strangled. The live music event that was routinely staged previously on special days was also dismissed.

Efforts to avoid the obligation to pay royalties by replacing copyrighted music using natural voice recordings, such as bird tweets and water booming also cannot be done. LMKN emphasized that all types of recordings, including natural voices produced professionally, still receive the protection of related rights and cannot be used freely for commercial purposes.

Quoted from Antara, the Chairperson of LMKN Dharma Oratmangun explained that the use of recordings in business spaces, whether in the form of songs, natural voices, or voice effects, still requires licensing and royalty payments to those who have rights. He referred to Law no. 28 of 2014 and Government Regulation (PP) No. 56 of 2021 concerning Management of Song Royalties and/or Music.

Screening of music in public spaces such as cafes, restaurants, or hotels is considered part of commercial services because it creates an attractive atmosphere for visitors. Therefore, the use of music, even though it comes from legal services such as flash drives, YouTube, or Spotify, must still be followed by royalty payments.

The government also revealed that streaming service subscriptions do not include permission to play music in the business room. This permit can only be obtained through LMKN as an official institution that manages licenses and royalties distribution to songwriters and copyright holders.

Under applicable regulations, the obligation to pay music royalties is applied to various types of public spaces and places of business that use music as part of their services. Below are some parties who have to pay music royalties:

In other words, every place that plays music and can be accessed by the wider community, and has the aim of supporting business or commercial activities, is required to pay royalties.

Business owners can apply for a license to use music by registering their business with LMKN. The procedure for applying for a license and royalty payment is applied through the following steps:

All of the above processes aim to ensure that the use of music runs legally, as well as to reward the creators and owners of the works.

To support small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), LMKN provides convenience in the form of a lighter royalty rate, even the potential to be free from payment obligations, depending on the scale and type of business being carried out.

The hope is that this policy can maintain a balance between copyright protection and the sustainability of small businesses, so that the culture of respecting intellectual works can grow well in Indonesia.

That's a review of who should pay music royalties. Hopefully this information will be useful! Visit VOI.id to get other interesting information.