Conflicts between self-employed owners and copyright holders broke out regarding usage fee of music that is played inside of coffee shops, bars, and gyms. While self-employed owners are wanting to pay $3.72 (4,000 KRW) every month, copyright holders want $18.60 (20,000 KRW) for playing their music.
According to industries on the 22nd, Korea Music Copyright Association (KMCA) submitted ‘an approval for revision of regulation on collection of usage fee of music copyright’ to Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST). According to KMCA’s application, it requests $18.60 (20,000 KRW) monthly from coffee shops, non-alcohol bars, and bars that are between 50m2 and 100m2 in size for playing their music. It wants $9.30 (10,000 KRW) for businesses that are smaller than 50m2.
Initially, South Korean Government, self-employed owners, and copyright holders decided on $3.72 (4,000 KRW) of monthly fee for businesses that are between 50m2 and 100m2 when they were voting on a revised enforcement ordinance of Music Copyright Act. It is heard that they were also looking to exclude small businesses that are smaller than 50m2 from having to pay monthly fee.
It is noted on KMCA’s application that KMCA wants $27.9 (30,000 KRW) from businesses that are between 100m2 and 200m2 in size, $41.85 (45,000 KRW) for businesses that are between 200m2 and 300m2, and $83.7 (90,000 KRW) for businesses that are bigger than 1,000m2.
In case of gyms, KMCA requested higher monthly fee than coffee shops and bars. It wants $24.18 (26,000 KRW) for gyms that are between 50m2 and 100m2 in size and up to $148.8 8 (160,000 KRW) for gyms that are bigger than 1,000m2.
Self-employed owners believe that new standards by KMCA are too excessive and they are requesting monthly fees to be between $2.79 and $3.72 (3,000 KRW and 4,000 KRW) regardless of sizes of businesses.
“It is undesirable to impose monthly fees depending on sizes when size of a business is not proportional to amount of sales.” said Korea Franchise Association. “We suggested to South Korean Government that KMCA should impose monthly fee of less than $2.79 (3,000 KRW) regardless of sizes of businesses.” Its belief is that usage fee of music needs to be reconsidered since self-employed owners are going through more difficulties due to increase in minimum wage and rent.”
“Due to high usage fee, small and medium businesses are becoming more resistant to paying usage fee and they are also worrying more about management expense.” said Korea Foodservice Industry Association.
MCST is also in a difficult situation.
“Because music industries sent revised plan on usage fee different from what we discussed earlier, we need additional time for discussion.” said a representative for MCST. “We are going to make a decision after looking at the results from Korea copyright Association’s reviews.”
Currently, Korea Copyright Association is having discussions based on revised plans submitted by self-employed owners and copyright holders. Based on its results, MCST is going to mediate opinions from both industries and announce its final decision sometime during next month.
Staff Kim, Jihye | jihye@etnews.com