Playing music without licence costs nightclub £20,000

The operators of Burnley's Vogue nightclub have been ordered to pay £20,000 for the illegal playing of music.
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Music licensing company PPL recently settled legal proceedings against Jason and Rebecca McQuoid, the operators of the Vogue nightclub, Burnley, and before it closed, the Vogue nightclub in Leigh.

This followed the operators agreeing to pay outstanding PPL licence fees of £7,893.98 and an additional £12,411 to cover PPL’s legal costs. The settlement took place after the owners were arrested in May for failure to appear in court for committal proceedings.

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Christine Geissmar, operations director PPL, said: “There is an intrinsic value that music adds to businesses, and this settlement acknowledges that the creators of the music should be fairly rewarded for this.

“PPL regards legal proceedings as very much a last resort but unfortunately they are sometimes necessary – failure to have the appropriate licence is a serious matter which may, if persistently left unresolved, lead to criminal sanctions being imposed by the courts.

“Those businesses that choose to play recorded music without a licence will face legal action and possibly hefty financial and other consequences as a result.”

In this case, proceedings were brought in September 2014 after recorded music was played at both nightclubs without a licence despite multiple efforts by PPL to work with the McQuoids to resolve this.

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The court issued an injunction in PPL’s favour in November 2014, to prevent them playing PPL’s repertoire in public without a licence.

The defendants did not respond to PPL and also failed to attend the court hearing on May 10th, as a result a warrant for their arrest was issued by the court.

PPL is the music licensing company which works on behalf of performers and record companies to license recorded music played in public.

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