According to a Nielsen Music study, the music industry is missing out on $2.65 billion annually due to businesses using personal music accounts in their storefronts. The culprit is mostly small businesses that are using consumer accounts not intended for commercial use.

This report was paid for by Soundtrack Your Brand, who offer music streaming for businesses starting at $26.99 a month. They surveyed 5,000 small business owners in the US, US, Spain, Sweden, Italy, Germany, and France. The data found that most of these businesses simply use an employee’s streaming account.

When music is played to benefit a business, a business licenses is needed. These rights are not included in the standard consumer streaming accounts that most small businesses use. Results estimated 21.3 million businesses are using the consumer streaming account instead of obtaining the proper business license.

80.3 percent of the small businesses surveyed mentioned music is important to their business, and 86 percent said they were willing to pay a bit more for the proper license. More than half the businesses were unaware their methods of playing music was illegal. In the US, 71 percent of businesses were unaware.

Co-founder and chairman of Soundtrack Your Brand, Andreas Liffgarden (formerly Spotify‘s global head of telecom business development) said, “Lack of innovation has driven small businesses to choose consumer services, as they are far more accessible and easy-to-use than most business alternatives. We need a new generation of B2B streaming services, attractive to business owners, that make sure music makers get fair compensation.”

H/T: Billboard

Photo Credit: Mia Shanley/REUTERS

Tags: Andreas Liffgarden, apple music, Music Industry, Nielsen, soundtrack your brand, spotify

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