Hotels in Shanghai pay for music copyright

Thirteen star hotels in Shanghai have agreed to pay for the background music they play inside their hotels in a move to better protect music copyrights.

On Monday, Shanghai Marriott Hotel Hongqiao signed an agreement with the Shanghai Office of Music Copyright Society of China (MCSC) regarding payments.

According to the pact,the hotel will pay 2.8 yuan (34 US cents) a month for each room, with the hotel's monthly payments totalling more than 900 yuan (US$108).

The MCSC has been in charge of collecting fees in the country, with its work in Shanghai beginning three years ago. The MCSC is the only officially recognized, non-profit organization for the collective administration of music copyrights in China.

"We started negotiations with the Shanghai Branch of China Tourist Hotels Association (CTHA) last year, and the first phase of our work is to talk with international hotel brands," said Fang Fang, representative of MCSC'sShanghai office.

Shanghai had some 30 four- or five-star hotels with overseas investments, and we finished talks with 13."

According to Fang, MCSC is planning to initiate talks with another 30 domestic hotels in the city.