There's a common misunderstanding among business owners that songwriters are only compensated by the purchase of their CDs, so that a business owner can freely play copyrighted music for customers. Not so, and Apple's new trademark filing for 'Apple Music for Business' indicates that Apple will be entering this new business avenue for Apple music in the future as the company seeks to expand their services businesses.

Trademark: 'Apple Music for Business'

Apple has filed their new trademark under two International Classes for legal protection as follows:  

International Class 038: "broadcast and transmission of streamed music, audio, video, and multimedia content by means of radio, television, internet, and satellite for business use."

International Class 041: "production of programmed music and video displays for subscribers; audio and video recording and production services for others; music service, namely providing specially programmed background music for retail establishments, public areas, and commercial establishments; providing radio, internet, and satellite music programming by means of telecommunications networks, computer networks, the Internet, satellite, radio, and wireless communications networks; musical, radio, television and video entertainment services, namely, custom arrangement and editing of music, audio and video programs; Custom music programming services.

A small business owner was on an Apple discussion thread wanting to know about switching from Spotify to Apple Music for his small business. Someone responded as follows: "Here is a blurb from LegalRights.com about playing music in public, but I would imagine a similar policy exists for playing in a private company setting as well.

Playing Music in Public

"A common misunderstanding among business owners is that songwriters are only compensated by the purchase of their CDs, so that a business owner can freely play copyrighted music for customers. The reality of the situation is that songwriters receive most of their compensation from public performances, so that business owners may be responsible for obtaining a license from a performing rights organization before being able to play copyrighted music in public. Some courts have defined public uses of music as:

• Radio stations
• Bars, restaurants, night clubs, and juke box operators
• Hotels that play the radio for guests through speakers or headphones
• Stores
• Telephone intercom systems that play music while callers are on hold"

Apple is obviously looking to cover this part of the music business as this is supported by the verbiage in International Class 41.

Apple has also filed for other trademarks in the last week covering the Siri Shortcuts icon under Application 88211056 as presented below as well as the "ML" icon for Machine Learning under application 88210882.

Apple's Siri Shortcuts icon was also applied for in Hong Kong under application number 304738230; and the Machine Learning "ML" Icon under application 304754214.