Get ready to pay more if you want to hear your favourite tunes at public events.

The Copyright Board of Canada announced on May 25 fees will now be charged when people use recorded music as part of a public event, including weddings, parades, circuses and karaoke.

"Authors of this music have been paid royalties for decades; performers and makers of sound recordings have yet to receive any compensation in this respect," the board notes in its reasoning to introduce the new fees.

These are different from SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) fees, which pay songwriters and publishers of music.

The new Re:Sound fee will compensate the people who perform the music -- which in many cases would be the same people who wrote and/or published the music.

The board specifically named assemblies, fashion shows, conventions, receptions (including weddings) and video game events as falling under public events that will have to pay up.

The cost for a reception is $9.25 for up to 100 people so long as they're not dancing. Add a little Electric Boogaloo and that cost rises to $18.51. The more people, the more you pay, with a cap of $78.66 for more than 500 people.

For bars that have karaoke up to three nights a week the fee will be $86.06 annually. If patrons are belting out bad renditions of old favourites more than three nights a week, the fee rises to $124.

When it comes to festivals, fairs and exhibitions, there are set fees for up to 75,000 attendees that top out at $42.05. But when there are more than 75,000, the fee becomes 54 cents for the first 100,000 people, 24 cents for the next 100,000 people, 18 cents for the next 300,000, then 13 cents for every person over 500,000.

For parade floats, it's $4.39 for each float playing recorded music, with a minimum fee of $32.55.

Organizers of events and owners of bars are expected to voluntarily report the music they play to the Copyright Board of Canada.