1Why a licence is needed at all
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 gives the owner of a copyright work the exclusive right to perform, show or play it in public. A performance is public when it happens in a place open to the public, or where a substantial number of people outside a normal circle of family and friends can hear it. A dining room, a shop floor, a gym and a waiting room all qualify.
Buying the music does not help. Owning a CD, or paying a monthly subscription to a consumer streaming service, gives you the right to listen privately. It does not give you the right to play the recording to your customers. Those are separate rights, sold separately.
Two sets of rights are in play. The composition, meaning the melody and lyrics, is controlled by songwriters and publishers, and in the UK this is the side PRS for Music licences. The sound recording, meaning the specific recorded performance, is controlled by labels and performers, and this is the side PPL licenses. For ordinary background music in a physical venue, both sides are owed money at once.
2Who you pay in the UK
The UK is tidier than most markets on this. Two collecting societies cover the whole chain, and they sell one joint licence together:
| Society | What it collects for |
|---|---|
| PRS for Music | The composition side. Songwriters, composers and music publishers. |
| PPL | The recording side. Record labels and performers. |
The two run a joint venture, PPL PRS Ltd, which sells the joint licence as one product: TheMusicLicence. One application, one invoice, one renewal, covering both the composition and the recording side of the music you play.
Two societies. One invoice. That is the whole structure, and it is genuinely simpler than the four organisation arrangement in some other markets.
3What it costs in 2026
PPL PRS publishes example prices rather than a single rate, because the tariff depends on the trade, the size of the space and how the music reaches the room. The published examples, ex VAT, current as of February 2026:
| Business | Published example | Annual ex VAT |
|---|---|---|
| Office or workplace | 4 staff or fewer, via radio | £168.71 |
| Shop | up to 50 m², one portable radio or small screen | £235.50 |
| Hair and beauty | 5 seats or fewer, via radio | £238.33 |
| Fitness | an instructor running 3 classes a week | £345.00 |
| Pub or bar | audible area up to 400 m², via radio | £364.62 |
| Cafe or restaurant | up to 30 seats in 400 m² or less | £400.81 |
| Hotel bedrooms | per room, public areas charged separately | £15 to £28 |
Most of those examples are the radio delivery method, which is the floor. A business that streams, or plays music through a screen system, sits on a higher tariff than the radio figure. Compare a streaming service against the tariff that actually applies to how you will play music, not against the radio number.
PPL PRS can back-date a licence over the period a venue was open and unlicensed, not just from the date you are contacted. A first bill covering two or three prior years is common, which is why the real first-year number is usually well above the headline rate.
4How the fee is calculated
PPL PRS tariffs are banded, and the bands turn on a small set of factors:
- Audible floor area, in square metres, the area where music can be heard.
- Occupancy or seating capacity, which is often taken from your fire certificate rather than your own estimate.
- How the music reaches the room. Radio is the cheapest delivery method. Streaming, television and multi room systems sit on higher tariffs.
- Number of rooms or areas, including patios and outdoor spaces, and in hotels the number of bedrooms.
- How music is used. Background music is the cheapest tier. Live performance, DJs, dancing and cover charges all escalate the rate.
Because the inputs are physical, the bill grows every time your business does. Adding a patio, extending your hours or knocking through a wall can all raise it, and none of that gets you a single extra song.
5There is no small premises exemption
Some countries let very small venues play radio without a licence. The United States has such an exemption for broadcast radio in premises under a size limit. The UK does not.
The two provisions that ever came closest were both repealed:
- Section 67 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, which once permitted playing records and broadcasts in certain non-commercial circumstances, has been repealed.
- Section 72(1B)(a), the last remaining small premises carve-out for broadcasts, was repealed by regulation 4(1) of SI 2010/2694.
So floor area, seat counts and the number of loudspeakers make no difference to whether you need permission, and it makes no difference whether the sound comes from a radio, a CD, a television or a streaming account. If it can be heard by customers, it is licensable.
6What consumer streaming does not cover
Personal subscriptions to Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube are licensed for personal, non-commercial listening. Every one of them prohibits commercial use in its terms of service, so playing them in a venue breaches both the contract and the public performance right in the 1988 Act. Paying for the family tier does not change this.
We cover this in more depth in can I play Spotify in my business.
7What getting it wrong costs
The UK has no statutory damages regime. A rights holder has to prove its loss, and claims either damages or an account of profits, with legal costs and an injunction on top. That is a lower ceiling than the per work statutory awards in some other countries, but it is not a small number for a business that has been unlicensed for years, and the costs of defending a claim are owed even when the damages are modest.
In practice the exposure is mostly commercial rather than courtroom shaped. PPL PRS monitors venues, writes first, and prices the licence retroactively over the unlicensed period. The back-dated bill, not a judge, is what most venues actually end up paying.
8Your four options
| Option | What it means |
|---|---|
| Buy TheMusicLicence | Pay PPL PRS for the right to play the repertoire of PRS for Music and PPL. Full mainstream catalogue, one bill, no music supplied. Published examples run from £168.71 to £400.81 a year ex VAT for small venues. |
| Mainstream commercial streaming | A business service such as Soundtrack Your Brand supplies mainstream music and still leaves TheMusicLicence to you. Typically about £22 to £40 a zone a month, plus the PPL PRS bill. |
| Licence free playlist libraries | Services whose own catalogues sit outside the PPL and PRS repertoires, sold at around £15 a month. Legal to play without TheMusicLicence, but you are choosing from their library, not the charts. |
| Licensed at source | Music licensed at source through a UK collective management organisation and registered with neither PPL nor PRS for Music, so no public performance royalty arises. One flat fee, certificate included. |
Which is right for you. If your customers expect current chart music by name, you need mainstream repertoire, which means TheMusicLicence, plus a service that supplies the music. If what you actually need is the right atmosphere and no licence relationship at all, a catalogue licensed outside the PPL and PRS repertoires does the job for less.
RadioB2B is the licensed at source option
1,200+ curated stations and background music video channels, licensed at source through RadioPRO Ltd, a UK collective management organisation, and registered with neither PPL nor PRS for Music. One flat £179 a year, with a Music Licence Certificate you can show to anyone who asks.
9Common questions
Do I need a music licence for my business?
If you play commercially released music where customers or staff can hear it, yes. That is a public performance under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and there is no size exemption that rescues a small venue. A catalogue licensed outside the PPL and PRS repertoires is the other way to answer the question, because there is nothing in it for the societies to collect on.
Do I need separate licences from PPL and PRS for Music?
No. They sell one joint licence, TheMusicLicence, through their joint venture PPL PRS. One application and one invoice cover both the composition and the recording side of the music you play.
What if I only play the radio?
It still needs a licence in the UK. Radio is simply the cheapest delivery method on the tariff, which is why so many published example prices describe it. There is no broadcast exemption for commercial premises.
Does my music service already cover me?
Only if its catalogue is genuinely cleared for commercial play. Services whose music sits outside the PPL and PRS repertoires need no TheMusicLicence at all. Services that supply mainstream repertoire normally expect you to hold TheMusicLicence, or bundle it. Consumer streaming accounts cover none of it. Check what your provider actually covers.
Can I be charged for music playing in a staff area?
Music that only staff hear is still licensable in the UK. PPL PRS publishes a separate workplace tariff for exactly that case. If customers and staff hear the same music, one licence covers the premises. The point is that staff only is not an exemption either.
Licence figures are the PPL PRS published examples, ex VAT, taken from pplprs.co.uk and current as of February 2026. They are examples, not quotations; your own price depends on audible floor area, seat numbers, staff numbers, opening hours and how the music reaches the room. Nothing here is legal advice. See our Terms of Use.