How do you know which music has been played?

We regularly receive play reports from radio and television about what music is played in their channels. We also receive reports from DJs all over the country, showing what is being played at discos and nightclubs. The Swedish Authors’ Fund (Författarfonden) also provides us with information about which phonograms have been lent out at Swedish libraries.

But if every single business that plays music at their premises would report every single song to us, there would be unmanageable amounts of data to handle, for them and for us. Instead, we ask the research institute SIFO to conduct a survey for us every year. This gives us the general information on what is being played in public all over the country. When we know what music they play in, for example, shops, restaurants, hotels and gyms, we add this information to the rest of our play reports. Together, all these sources give us a pretty good picture of what music has been played and helps us distribute the collected remuneration as fairly as possible.