Hotel, restaurant asked to pay for background music

Hotels and restaurants in China could soon have to pay royalties when they play background music to keep their customers satisfied.

The Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court will hear a case in which the Hangzhou Hyatt Hotel and a local restaurant group named Jiubaiwan were charged with playing music in a public place for commercial use but refusing to pay copyright royalties to the Music Copyright Society of China (MCSC).

"It's hard to understand why we have to pay to play music in a restaurant for customers as we don't make money from it directly," a man who works for Jiubaiwan was quoted by Zhejiang News as saying yesterday.