Teosto (the Finnish RIAA) has independently decided to raise prices for restaurants playing music to their customers. The raise is pretty significant as for a restaurant for 800 customers open 5 days a week the price for to pay for Teosto rises from 4000Ç«® a year to 40 000Ç«® a year (HS). A 10-fold increase – that’s ridiculous.

The Finnish Hotel and Restaurant union (SHR) has told their members not to abide by the price increases and pay the smaller increases that were suggested by the union for Teosto. The talks between Teosto and SHR ended without results earlier and Teosto decided to go ahead with the price increase nevertheless. The CEO of one of the most famous Finnish restaurants in Helsinki, Juhani Merimaa of Tavastia, has said that, “their methods are questionable as they do have a monopoly in the business”.

Running a restaurant is very regulated by the government and thus it is already very difficult to keep the businesses profitable (in smaller towns at least). Raising prices for music like this is pretty ridiculous by any standards. When do we see the first bar that decides to play Teosto free music and thus save 40 000Ç«® a year?