How to legally play music in business
As a business owner in hospitality, retail, and other B2C industries, you inevitably will have to deal with copyright law.
Do you turn on Spotify in your shop? Or play a YouTube compilation of jazz classics to create a welcoming ambiance for guests of your cafe? If this is the case, you should consider music licensing for business.
This guide helps you reveal how you can legally meet the music needs of your business.
- How does music licensing work
- What do music performance rights organizations do?
- How to legally play music in your business
- How much does a business music license cost?
- Licensed music on Moodby Play
How does music licensing work
There are songwriters, composers, performers, publishers, and other people from the music industry behind any song. And imagine, they would like to get paid for their work!
That is where copyright law comes in. It entitles copyright holders to control how others use their creative output. Original works are protected by copyright once they are recorded on a physical medium or digitally. From the moment, such tracks are considered copyrighted music.
Music licensing defines the ways of using recordings by individuals and companies. Generally speaking, there are two paths to take: for personal use and business use.
Usually, you can limitlessly listen to any music with your earphones. However, when your playlist enters the audio speakers, it might become a public performance. If you do it in your business, you should obtain music licenses to avoid copyright infringement.
With a license, you can use a piece of music for a specific purpose related to your business, for example, entertaining your guests in the hotel lobby.
Commercial music licensing covers streaming recorded music in public, including background music in your business. The law also regulates the penalty policy. So, if you are found to have used music without a license, you can legally be fined.
Millions of copyrighted tracks exist on Earth, so someone has manage and monitor their use. That is how music performance rights organizations came into being.
What do music performance rights organizations do?
Performance rights organizations (PROs) or collective management organizations (CMOs) represent rights holders in different countries by granting music licenses to businesses.
They work directly with publishers, artists, and labels who enlist their music catalogs to these agencies for control in whole or in part. As a result, one society has a wide range of music companies under its service.
The main focus of CMOs is music licensing for businesses. Then, they separate royalty – money gained from license fees – across music industry players under their banner.
As watchdogs of the music business, performing rights agencies also can file lawsuits against bars, restaurants, and other establishments that stream copyrighted tracks without a license.
You can find the list of local CMOs here.
How to legally play music in your business
You have two options for streaming background music in your place of business without breaking the law.
First, you can make your own original music and join the troop of copyright holders.
Second, if you wish to use tracks created by somebody else, you should obtain a license for that music.
How about royalty-free music as the third option? It is a reasonable question to ask.
Yes, by using non-copyrighted music, you avoid paying for a music license. This type of music is available from many online suppliers with no strings attached. However, you still should pay to use their catalogs. Plus, such music is usually too plain and mediocre to please your guests or customers.
You may think that classical music is royalty-free as well. Yes, Beethoven is unlikely to be able to file a lawsuit if you stream his Moonlight in your cafe. However, the orchestra whose recording of Moonlight you put on, the publisher, and the label could still take legal action.
How much does a business music license cost?
The cost of a license varies in different performance rights societies. However, some factors affect it:
- your type of business (there are special tariffs for beauty salons and retail stores)
- how you will use copyrighted music (for example, playing a recorded track)
- the square meterage (a music license for a small business such as a coffee shop is cheaper than for a hotel chain)
- number of employees (it matters when you want to stream copyrighted music in your office)
- type of device for playing music (TV sets, an audio system, etc.).
You can learn more about the price of a public performance license in your region by contacting the local CMO.
Licensed music on Moodby Play
If you want to stream copyrighted music, consider using a B2B music streaming solution. Moodby Play provides licensed music for restaurants, bars, pubs, and other venues. Discover an extensive collection of music stations with popular and well-loving songs and recordings curated by local experts.
A free 30-day trial is available to users in Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Poland, and Romania!
