Music licensing and especially audio branding, originating from the Western countries, are newer themes in South-East Asia. CMOs send legal action letters to commercial outlets even though they are not using music from their repertoire, and just because they are playing music,” Jerry Chen, Managing Director, Express Melody, added in an interview.

“Generally, business owners are not familiar with music copyright issues. The copyright holders are the musicians and the musicians can transfer the rights to other organizations such as publishers or background music providers. Our music license has already been covered,” said the café owner, who immediately approached Express Melody for a resolution.ĬMOs are normally engaged by larger corporations who hold the rights to mainstream music and can only enforce the licensing rights of the tracks from the musicians that CMOs represent. “We have already paid for our music license and this an unacceptable demand. Express Melody held the licensing rights to the music that was being played in the outlet. Playing music in a commercial area requires a public performance license and the rights to such licenses are not exclusive to CMOs. Hence, it is improbable for such tracks to be mistaken to be from CMOs’ repertoire. The music provided by Singapore-based start-up Express Melody are original songs from independent composers, giving the outlets a distinct sound atmosphere, which is reinvigorating as most outlets typically play mainstream music.

However, the café was streaming fully-licensed legal music from another background music provider, Express Melody. The CMO deemed the café to be playing their music illegally. Last month, a café in Malaysia received a legal action letter from a Collective Management Organization (CMO). Groundless accusations made against law-abiding café

Express store music playlist