Tags : horses, Music, PRS, riaa
And we thought the RIAA was a horse’s ass
We all like to pick on the RIAA; quite rightfully, but it looks like they could take a few lessons on arsine behavior from their British counterpart - The Performing Rights Society; otherwise known as PRS for Music. In the past the organization has been known to go after children’s charities, garages and even a police station, all for playing a radio loud enough in the case of the garages for the customers to hear. In the case of the children’s charity the PRS said they didn’t cough up for a license fee to sing Christmas carols. As for the police station – well I still haven’t figured that one out.
Not happy with the results from these kind of actions they have decided to target stable owners as evidenced in the case of 62 year old Mrs Greenway who plays a classical radio station in the stables that she has been running for 20 years. According to the PRS though because she employees more than two people she must pay the annual £99 licensing fee regardless of the fact that the music is played for the horses benefit not the staffs. In fact the majority of the staff dislike the choice of music and will turn it off when Mrs. Greenway isn’t around.
She received a telephone call from the Performing Right Society – now officially known as PRS for Music – which was targeting stables as part of a drive to get commercial premises to pay for licences.
Rather than pay the fee, she now leaves the radio off except on Sundays when she is alone at the stable yard.
"I actually use my radio for the benefit of the horses as Classic FM helps them relax," she said.
"The staff are not bothered whether they have the radio on or not, in fact they don’t particularly like my music and turn if off when I’m not around."
Mrs Greenway, who keeps 11 horses at the stables, added: “You would have thought that playing music to your own horses was allowable but apparently not.
Source: Telegraph
Apparently Mrs. Greenway isn’t the only stable owner to be accosted in this fashion as Chris Doran of the British Horse Society says that the organization has been fielding several calls from other stables about this.
[picture courtesy of The Telegraph]
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