If you’re in India and have ever been near an elevator, you’ve probably heard Kenny G playing the saxophone. Owners of malls, hospitals, independent retail outlets, housing quarters and practically every lift (elevator) seem to have a particular proclivity toward choosing the instrumental music of Kenneth Bruce Gorelick.

While I do like his music, and probably could write about it, I’ve decided to look into the legality involved in playing his music in the elevator. While a few in the legal profession and those who own said lifts may know of it, owners of establishments require specific licenses to play music on their premises, however big or small. The basic reasoning for this is that music is subject to protection under the law of copyright and only the owner of the copyright can perform or communicate the work to the public; anyone else who would like to do so requires a license.

The ownership of copyright in a given song or piece of music involves several aspects. A simple song for instance has three parts and the rights may or may not be with the same person; for instance

  • The lyrics of the song can be protected as literary work and the owner of the copyright is the lyricist.
  • The music of the song can be protected as a musical work and the owner of the copyright is the composer
  • The song together with music and lyrics which is recorded can be protected as a sound recording and the owner of the copyright is the producer of the sound recording (the record label).

Coming back to Kenny G, for a song like, Forever in Love, Kenny G was the composer and so the copyright for the music would belong to him, but the rights to play the sound recording would belong to the producer which was Arista Records [then RCA and now Sony Music Entertainment]

So for the music in the elevator, the owner of the commercial establishment would ideally have to get a license to play the music from Sony Music Entertainment (SME). Also if the music was played without a license it would be SME’s job to go around looking to find out. Seeing as that would be a rather cumbersome, complicated and practically impossible, we have Copyright Societies.

Copyright Societies are non-profit organizations that copyright owners can register their copyright with, who will then in turn take care issuing licenses, the collection of royalties and the other related matters.

In India we have the Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) which handles the copyright of sound recordings and Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS) who handles the rights for lyricists and composers.

Ideally, if you want to play a recording of a song, in a restaurant, a hospital, petrol bunk or in a bar or pub or any commercial establishment or public place or for a non-private use, you would need a license from PPL. The list of places which would require specific licenses from PPL can be found here. If you want someone to perform the same song at an event instead of playing the recording, you would need to get a license from IPRS. However even in sound recordings the underlying rights of the lyricists and composers still exist and so you may end up having to get licenses from both PPL and IPRS for any recording that you play on your premises.

If the person responsible didn’t get the proper license before playing the song, they would have to pay a penalty or can even be faced with contesting a case of copyright infringement or criminal sanctions which merit a fine and imprisonment.

So the next time you’re enjoying the music at a restaurant or listening the song whilst on hold on the phone, just remember that someone has licensed that music.

If you are setting up a shop, restaurant, bar, gym or any commercial establishment where you want to play some music in the background or forefront, in addition to all the required permissions remember that you need to get a license for it or you will have to face the music (pun intended).

This article has been authored by Navarre Roy, an IP Law practitioner.

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