Thousands of people braved a rainy day to line up both sides of Douglas St. to watch bands, floats and performers during the 114th Victoria Day Parade in Victoria Monday May 21,2012.
A new copyright fee being forced on businesses that play recorded music has some venues bracing for customer backlash if they start charging more to compensate.
"We have to pay for it, so we have to charge," said Gino Milito, general manager of Orchard View Wedding and Conference Centre in Ottawa.
The new tariff was approved by the Copyright Board of Canada last week and applies to businesses that gain from playing music, including karaoke bars, and those that run events such as weddings, ice shows, circuses and parades.
The tariff was proposed by Re:Sound, the copyright collective that represents performers and record companies, which says its members deserve to be paid when their work is used. A separate group that represents music publishers, the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), already charges its own fees.
"We're already having a hard time whenever we ask them for the $50 they have to pay for SOCAN," Mr. Milito said.
Matthew Fortier, Re:Sound's director of communications, said it will be up to individual businesses to decide whether they absorb costs or charge their customers directly. "They're using music and they understand there's a cost associated with that," he said.
He said the fees won't apply to public parties or garage sales where music is played because the tariff is specifically aimed at commercial use. For example, a formal wedding venue will be charged for music use, he said, but the fees won't apply to a backyard wedding.
Events including receptions, conventions and assemblies that use music will be charged $9.25 if there are less than 100 people. More than 500 is $39.33 and the fee doubles if there's dancing. The tariffs are effective now but the first payments will be collected in October, Mr. Fortier said.
Re:Sound has been discussing the tariff with Canadian businesses for the last five years, he said.
But Al Coco, owner of Montreal's Lolita Karaoke Bar-Lounge, said the fee is news to him. At his bar, he only does karaoke once or twice a week.
The new tariff sets out that businesses that offer karaoke must pay $86 for fewer than three days a week, or $124 for the entire week. Mr. Coco said he won't pay the fee because he doesn't make that much by offering karaoke as an option to his customers. If he gets in trouble, he said he'll get rid of karaoke rather than pay the fee.
"They want more fees every day," he said. "There's no way you can pass it to the customers.… they can't afford any more increases."