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Comment by whalesalad | Hacker News Reader

Chances are it’s something we cannot see. Technology, people, an existing deal or relationship with someone Square wants to be close to.

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In some places, you need to pay rights to play music in your store. As Square has a great number of business customers, it might be an easy upsell. Like get paid and provide a great ambiance?

Could also be a play to help reframe how people think of Square and be able to expand in other categories SMBs might need.

That's a great point I hadn't thought of. For example, small coffee shops play music on Spotify. IANAL, but I assume that's technically illegal, though no one will sue a tiny coffee shop over that. But once you start expanding to multiple shops, you may want to get more "legitimate". You already have Square, so now you can just add the Tidal service to your bill

The cost is less Tidal and more the Ascap and BMI licensing. It looks like there are companies who will bundle the cost of licensing into your monthly fee, though.

>In some places,

Some? Can you please tell me about where you legally/legitimately can perform recorded music in a public place for public consumption without "permission"?

I can't speak to the legality, but i've seen countless places (retail shops, restuarants, etc) where they were playing radio over the speakers. Also, i've seen playing over spotify.

As have I, and every one of those are breaking ASCAP/BMI licensing. A lot of stores subscribe to "in-store" networks, and that subscription covers these licensing fees. Using someone's iDevice with their Spotify/whatever app even if it is paid for is NOT a license for public performances. You (royal you) can disagree with it, but it is what it is. If it is usually the smaller places that feel the proper licensing is too expensive, but will be floored when they get popped.

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