Is BMI harassing your business too?

Hot Question Forum
1

I run a bar/brewery and we’ve been using a commercial Spotify account to play music in our tasting room, so we’re good on music licensing. But for the past 6+ months, BMI has been bombarding me with emails and letters, like multiple times a week, claiming that we don’t have the right music license. I’ve emailed them back, provided proof of our licensing, but they keep sending more letters and emails without any real reason.

Has anyone dealt with this? Any advice on how to handle this harassment? I feel like I’m being targeted for no reason at this point.

2

Just a quick reminder, this forum is for asking questions about running a business and getting answers from the community. Posts that don’t follow the forum rules could be removed, and you might even get banned if the issue isn’t resolved. Don’t worry, this message doesn’t mean your post has been removed.

I’m a bot, and this was an automatic response. If you have any questions or need help, feel free to contact the moderators.

3

We’ve got a similar issue. We’ve only announced plans for a music venue on our website, but they still email us every week. If you respond to them, there’s a high chance it’s just an automated reply.

4

You could download a cease and desist template and send it to them by certified mail. If they keep bothering you, you could take them to the lowest level of civil court in your state, aiming for the highest dollar amount possible. For example, here it’s $7,500, and it probably wouldn’t be worth it for them to hire a lawyer. That could make them stop contacting you, or at least pay attention to you.

5

Have you tried reaching out to Spotify? You’re paying them to handle the licensing, so they might be able to help or give you some advice on how to deal with BMI.

6

Are they saying you’re doing something wrong, or are they just sending the general “you need a license to play music at your business” letters? If you’re just using the commercial Spotify/Soundtrack account and not hosting live bands or DJs, it might be worth getting a lawyer to send a letter telling them to stop contacting you.

7

You can either reach out to Spotify or just hire a lawyer to deal with it.

8

Just ignore them. They’ll eventually stop.

9

If they’re going after you for public performance rights, then Spotify doesn’t cover that. They might act like it does, but if you read the terms, you’ll see it’s not included.

10

Spotify doesn’t offer a plan for what you’re talking about.

Here’s the link to Spotify’s article about commercial use.

11

Dallas said:
Spotify doesn’t offer a plan for what you’re talking about.

Here’s the link to Spotify’s article about commercial use.

There’s actually a link on that page for Soundtrack, Spotify’s commercial public use service.

12

Dallas said:
Spotify doesn’t offer a plan for what you’re talking about.

Here’s the link to Spotify’s article about commercial use.

Yes, they do offer it. It’s called Soundtrack, which is Spotify’s commercial service.

13

Dallas said:
Spotify doesn’t offer a plan for what you’re talking about.

Here’s the link to Spotify’s article about commercial use.

Sorry, that’s not correct.