Not being paid the requisite licence is certainly not music to the ears,not for the Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL). The Indian music industrys licensing arm has served notices to several well-known pubs and restaurants in the Capital that have not paid the licence fee to play music at events on the New Years Eve. The PPL on Tuesday got an interim injunction from the Delhi High Court,which directed restaurants,malls and bars in the Capital to pay a licence fee for songs played by them till next date of hearing. Vipul Pradhan,chief executive officer of PPL,says,Pubs and hotels rake in revenues,with customised new year packages ranging from Rs 1,500 to Rs 25,000 each year. But they refuse to pay PPL a nominal tariff of Rs 40,000 onwards (it varies,depending on number of hours for which music is played). This,Pradhan says,eats into royalties of artistes. Among pubs and restaurants against which the High Court has given the interim injunction are Tivoli Garden Resort,Tonic,Parikrama,Qashqai,DLF Promende (DLF Service Ltd),Tabula Rasa,Polka Restobar,Blanco,Tao Lounge bar,Black and Addiction. The hotels,though,have another tell to tale. Calling PPLs action pure harassment,Sohrab Sitaram,co-owner of Tabula Rasa,says,I had approached PPL authorities 20 days ago to submit Rs 91,000 they had asked for. They agreed on a discount of 10 per cent then,but later refused to accept anything less than Rs 91,000. So I did not pay the fees. Citing a discrepancy,Sitaram says PPL is charging another city restaurant,Thai Hi,Rs 10,000. They have to be clear about the fee, he says. Manav Sharma,consultant at Blanco,Khan Market,agrees. There has to be a rationalisation; they (PPL) are just hitting on easy targets. The court says we have to obtain the licence but no one really knows about the intricacies involved. Sharma says he is in touch with PPL and awaiting a response on Thursday. They bring up this issue every year during this time. Rajneesh Khanna,general manager of the revolving restaurant Parikrama,at Connaught Place,says PPL asked him to pay the licence fees for the last two years as well. But I had been paying the same fees to T-Series,as we played only their music, he contends. Now there has been a merger between T-series and PPL,and PPL wants to mint money out of us. PPL has got similar injunctions in West Bengal,Tamil Nadu,Karnataka and Kerala from the respective state High Courts.
