Charities gang up to fight music charges

CHARITY bosses are calling for a halt to plans to charge charities up to £20 million more a year to play music.

Senior figures from more than a dozen major UK charities, many of which run shops and services in Oldham, have written to Lord Mandelson ahead of a change in the law later this month.

They want to see no change in an existing exemption for charities and not-for-profit organisations from payment of royalty fees to licensing firm PPL (Phonographic Performance Ltd).

Signed by the chief executives of Oxfam and Mind, and senior managers of Shelter, Age Concern and Help the Aged, British Heart Foundation and Alzheimer’s Society as well as a host of national charitable bodies, the letter states the new charge will put vital charity services at risk because organisations will have less money to spend on the people and communities who need it most.

Dr Kershaw’s Hospice has four charity shops in Oldham borough, and would face having to buy an extra four licences — one for each premises.

Appeals manager Brian Hurst said: “We are already struggling to raise the money we need to run the hospice, and this would just be another burden.

“The radio is just a bit of background music at the shops for the people who sort through donations in the back room.”

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) has been running a “Don’t Stop the Music” campaign to prevent the decision, which was announced in November, becoming law this month.

Its chief executive, Stuart Etherington, said: “There are thousands of voluntary and community groups across the UK that already run on incredibly tight budgets and will rightly wonder how they will afford to pay this extra fee.

“Charities already have to pay a licence to PRS for Music if they want to play recorded music in their own premises, and this is a licence fee to a second royalties body, PPL — which costs a minimum of £80.”

It will apply to charities which hold discos, tea dances, drop-in sessions or youth clubs with music in the background, or have volunteers listening to the radio.