“I have two establishments in Ostrava. The first is a bar on Stodolní Street, which can accommodate regarding fifty people. There, they ask me for a total of over 50,000 crowns a year, which is really a lot. But of course I pay, I have nothing else to do,” businessman Petr told Novinkam a Práv.
He did not want to give his full name or the name of the establishment because he is worried regarding inconvenience. In addition to the bar, it also operates one lunch restaurant in another part of Ostrava. “However, I canceled the contract with OSA there a long time ago. For several years I have been paying for internet radio there, which only plays music by authors not represented by OSA. As a backdrop for lunches, so that the restaurant is not quiet, this often secondary music is absolutely sufficient,” adds the operator.
When calculating royalties for restaurants, the type of music player and the size of the municipality where the restaurant is located play a role. For example, a pub in Prague’s Žižkov, which has one radio, one television, on which sports matches are played, and two loudspeakers, should pay a monthly fee of 2,384 crowns, including VAT, according to the tariff of collective administrators.
Pubs and cafes are getting more expensive. Beer in Prague over 70 crowns
“Inflation valuation is a commonly used price adjustment tool in business relationships. In particular, the OSA started adjusting the prices following a discussion with the authors themselves, for whom, like all of us, the cost of living increases every year. In many cases, faster than inflation,” the chairman of the board of the union, Roman Strejček, told Novinkám.
“I would rather improve the staff”
However, the growing fees annoy the operators. Marek Albrecht from Olomouc’s U Zlaté kule restaurant preferred not to present his opinion on the fee increase.
“Of course I have one for that, but it’s not for publication. We have to pay, so we have no choice. However, the Authors’ Protection Union would not have to squeeze us like this. I think he has enough options to get money. And how much do I pay? I don’t know that off the top of my head. A slip will come, I’ll pay and I won’t worry regarding it anymore,” Albrecht told Novinkám.
According to OSA, Jan Větrovský, the owner of the U Větráka restaurant in Losiná in the Plzeň region, paid regarding twelve thousand crowns for it last year. “For television, even though we mainly broadcast sports, it mostly has nothing to do with music. It seems terribly non-transparent to me. I really don’t know where the money is going,” said Větrovský.
“If I can’t change something, I don’t deal with it. And I will pay with gritted teeth, even if I would rather improve the staff for that thousand a month,” he added.
OSA lists the price for the rights of music authors and other creators who participated in recordings or audiovisual works, i.e. performing artists, record companies, screenwriters or artists, in the price list of copyright fees for restaurants, bars, shops, services, accommodation, fitness and healthcare device on their website.
OSA was fined for fees it charged hotels for unoccupied rooms
