Aunty Gül of the music industry

Music is a huge part of my life. I am not alone. Billions of people around the world start and end their days with music. They listen to music when they are sad or happy, depending on their mood. There is music for every feeling that you get. Music is so essential that it affects what you buy and how you eat since it has an amazing power of setting your mood. Therefore, thousands of cafes, restaurants, shopping malls, hotels and whatnot pay to play the right music to your ear to make you relax, enjoy your time and in hopes that you spend more.

There’s even scientific study on this. The Association of Psychological Science claims that background music has a surprisingly strong influence on what products consumers buy and how much they’re willing to pay for them, according to a new study from psychology scientists Adrian North and Lorraine Sheridan of Curtin University and Charles Areni of Macquarie University. Those listening to country music were prepared to pay more for utilitarian products than the participants in the other two groups, while those listening to classical were willing to spend more on social identity products than the other participants.

That’s why the management of copyrights is essential to all kinds of stores and brick and mortar businesses as well as hospitals.  It may not have been so in the past. But for the last 15 years or so, the associations of creatives, such as MESAM (Türkiye Musiki Eseri Sahipleri Meslek Birliği) and MÜ-YAP are strictly following those who abide or abuse the copyrights of creatives.

MÜ-YAP, established in August 2000, is a non-profit organization for the neighboring rights of phonogram producers. Turkish legislation obliges MÜ-YAP to conduct anti-piracy and collecting activities jointly. Thus MÜ-YAP works as the collecting society of producers on the one hand and as the representative of Turkish music industry on the other hand. MÜ-YAP currently has 197 members and it represents 80 percent of the music industry in Turkey.

There is severe punishment for those who abuse copyrights. Aside from a monetary fine, they have to face negative PR if they are involved in a pricy case. According to industry veterans, the latter is a greater deterrent to businesses.

I did not realize how big the licensed music market was until I met Gül Gürer Alimgil, one of the three founding partners of SMG, a technology firm providing licensed and royalty-free music services. She said her partners call her Aunty Gül, as they are very close and dear to her and she is an experienced veteran of the business world.

They are present in 30 countries, in more than 10,000 locations and serving 700 customers. In 2017, their revenue was 6 million Turkish Liras. And at the end of 2019, they are expecting to reach 8 million liras in revenues.

She said their services include risk-free and uninterrupted in-store music with a broad, legal and royalty-free music archive; centralized control and management of multiple locations from a single platform; general or store-specific promotion and campaign announcements recorded in-house.

I had the opportunity to visit their office and it was a refreshing experience. It is a place filled with good energies due to the fact that it is populated with young musicians. I don’t know if any other private business is hiring so many musicians. They produce an album filled with many songs in a week. Their loyalty-free music production business, Snapmuse, is set to open its wings and enter foreign markets. They have 3,000 royalty free songs as of today.

I wish them all the success.