In-salon entertainment

Music in your salon creates a good atmosphere, helps relax your customers, and can even motivate staff, but you need to make sure you get the right licences or you could be hit by a fine.Tailor your Playlist Charles Dodds, co-director of the 45-staff Cutting Room Creative in Leeds, believes music is vital:

"It's mood setting - we are trying to create an ambience and music plays a massive part in that. I'm constantly updating the selection on the iPod, but I do bear the clientele in mind. We have a cross-section of taste that's geared towards the clientele, not the staff. The music must never take over, you have to be able to have a conversation and hear the consultation."

Paul Stafford plays two styles of music in his salon in Belfast:

"In the backwash area we have very soothing music to help our clients relax and destress while they have a shampoo and head massage. In the main working area we generally have more upbeat music to lift the overall mood of the salon. Playing two types of music also helps motivate our team and reinforces to them the services we offer in the different areas of the salon."

Gary Hooker and Michael Young, who own four salons in the northeast, tailor their playlists to suit each salon:

"Our salon at Seaham Hall plays tranquil music to fit with the spa atmosphere, while the Jesmond salon is more upbeat. We have a very strict music code and the playlists come from our central office. The systems in place allow music to be played at the right volume in each separate area. In reception and at the cutting stations the music is loud enough without being intrusive; while the backwash music can take a more dominant role as the clients relax and lose themselves in the experience."

Latest Innovations Many salons are now using iPods with a docking station - an 8GB iPod nano is able to store 2,000 songs = which beats changing a CD every time it finishes. But some salons are going further than music to entertain clients. Equipment manufacturer REM UK has recently launched a neat flatscreen TV as an option in its Duke Barber's unit. And in-salon entertainment looks set to become even more sophisticated. Dutch company ad notam has developed a screen within a mirror concept. When switched off it looks like a normal mirror, but when it's switched on a screen appears. Salons can choose to offer TV channels, a film (VHS/DVD) or an in-store programme. One Cut, a progressive new hair salon chain in France, has opened its first store with mirror technology by ad notam showing intelligent advertising content with 3D animated weather forecasts, cosmetic sales and current events of the day. Likewise, some London salons are now beaming their own salon channel through TV screens, with interviews and features on staff and styles. Companies like i-vu supply and install interactive screens, create and manage screen content. Alternatively Hello! magazine has an option for celebrity gossip to be beamed through to salons to keep customers entertained. The project, launched in association with Vision TV, has headlines fed to plasma screens in more than 250 hairdressers across the UK. Legal Requirements Without the right licences to play your tapes and CDs or even your telephone on-hold music, you run the risk of hefty fines. Licences are issued by two bodies:

• PRS, which represents the composers, songwriters and music publishers
• Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL), which represents the record companies and performers.

In most circumstances you will need both a PPL and a PRS licence. Once you've bought a licence, you can then play just about any copyright music in the world. Annual fees for a PRS licence vary according to the size of your salon, but start at £64.37 for a salon with up to and including 30 stylists' chairs, and then an extra £23.41 for each additional five stylists' chairs. According to PRS you don't pay more for playing a radio and a TV. A PPL licence is also based on the number of stylists' chairs you have - a licence for 16 to 20 chairs currently costs £159.78. Be warned - the PRS and the PPL are clamping down on salons playing music without a licence, but the message is getting through. The PRS now has just over 23,000 hairdressers and beauticians with active licences in the UK - a 42% increase on 2005 figures. If you haven't yet got a licence, it's worth calling both the PPL and the PRS to explain what you are intending to play, whether it be music, radio or TV. The rates for a licence only apply to one obtained in advance - the PRS threatens a 50% increase on the standard rate if a licence isn't obtained in advance.