Mental health charity shops have music in Mind

Posted Thursday 30 October 2008

Get down to your local Mind charity shop from Monday 3 November to Saturday 8 November to get on down. Mind is celebrating the return of music to its stores after being forced to switch off the tunes earlier this year as they risked incurring a hefty fine from the Performance Rights Society (PRS). To celebrate reaching an agreement with the PRS on the cost of a license, the mental health charity is holding Music in Mind week which aims to raise over £7000 necessary to cover the annual fee by selling all things musical, from old LPs to classical sheet music and guitars.

In July, the music died when Mind had to ask its shops to stop playing the radio in their donation sorting rooms for fear of being fined by the PRS. Mind was also worried that it could be fined retrospectively for the last five years at a cost running into hundreds of thousands of pounds. The charity couldn't afford to divert such a huge amount of money away from its core work and so had to ask its shops to remove their radios depriving staff and volunteers of the music and companionship it gave them.

Mind, with the Association of Charity Shops, has now struck a deal with the PRS that means they will be exempt from past fees and will pay an agreed amount annually for each of its 100 shops from now on.

Bob Monteath, Managing Director of Mind shops, said:

"It's great news that once again our staff, volunteers and customers can enjoy having music on in the background as they work or browse. We are really pleased that the Association of Charity Shops has managed to negotiate a reasonable price for a license and hopefully we can raise enough money during Music in Mind week to cover the expense of this so that funds are not diverted away from our work supporting those with mental health problems."

During Music in Mind week the public will be encouraged to come along to their local Mind shop to check out what musical treasures they might find. There should be something on offer to cater for everyone's taste from rock and pop to reggae and blues, so why not take a look.

Notes to editors

• Mind is the leading mental health charity in England and Wales. We work to create a better life for everyone with experience of mental distress. 
• For more information or interviews please contact the Mind media team on T: 020 8522 1743 M: 07850 788514 E: media@mind.org.uk ISDN line available: 020 8221 0817
• Please note that Mind is not an acronym and should be set in title case.

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