"Sure the band benefits. But a band benefits when a radio station plays one of their tunes too. Should radio therefore have access to artists' music for free as well?" Well, that's what radio stations thought. The musicians went on strike and stopped recording. The radio stations buckled, companies like SOCAN were formed, and the stations payed. They still do. "I'm certainly not suggesting that record stores stop playing music. I'm just saying that the music has economic value and the artists should be compensated for it's use. If playing music in the store is part of their marketing strategy then it should be part of the cost of doing business, regardless of what that line of business that may be." For the record I don't work in a cd store, though the store does sell CD's as part of it's business. Let's take a dentist's office for example. Playing music in the waiting room can't be construed as a marketing strategy, it's just being polite really. Bizarre to think that ABBA deserve their royalty for that. Frankly, if they do then I think you might want to reconsider playing music when you invite friends over. "If SOCAN plans to continue pursuing revenues from sources that have long gotten a free ride then I think they have to re-examine their rates and the way they do business for sure. There has to be some negotiation with record stores, web radio, etc. I agree that SOCAN's tactics have gotten out of hand, but I do think they are entitled to pursue those revenues, they just have to be smarter about it." Remember, the businesses won't be paying these royalties, their customers will. But we do agree that SOCAN is getting out of hand. One way they could be smarter is enforcing the payment rules they have for live music venues. It's very rare that Canadian venues are paying what they are supposed to.