Notes from the Watertower

Left Bank Two, or how to license music on hold?

Sadly an old favourite TV presenter of mine, Tony Hart died recently. Many people will remember him for his great drawings, projects and so on, but probably most importantly the music that accompanied the gallery segment of “Vision On”. Who knew the name of it until now? Well, it’s called “Left Bank Two” by “The Noveltones”.

But it got me thinking – Music on Hold. Can I use that as a music on hold track in my PBXs? How do I license it? Who do I pay? Do I have to pay anyone? (Yes!)

It appears to be a complicated matter, but an email and a phone call from the very helpful people at De Wolf set me straight. I need to buy a copy of the track, then for each installation apply for an MCPS  (Mechanical Copyright Protection Society) license (at a cost of £35 for each 30 seconds!) and, if the music is ever going out to Joe random public, apply for a separate PRS (Performing Rights Society) license too. (These start at about £95 per year for a small number of incoming lines and go up from there) Some premises may already have a PRS license, so extending it to their music on hold may not be that difficult.

The MCPS and PRS have recently formed a new brand called “PRS for Music”. Their website is here.

So if you want “The Gallery Tune” on your PBX, then it’s certianly possible, it’ll just cost you (but not a lot in the grand scheme of things).

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 at 11:08 am and is filed under General, Telecoms. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.