A simple guide to music licensing for business

Music licensing is important to understand for any business playing music in their store, venue or office. However, it can be complicated, time consuming and even costly if not handled correctly. This article explains how music licensing for business works and provides advice on how best to handle music licensing in your business.

Let's start with a few key questions:

• Did you know it’s illegal to play CDs or your personal Apple Music or Spotify playlists in your store, business or venue without a public performance of music license?
• Did you know that even if you license your personal Apple Music or Spotify music streaming accounts, you could be paying double what you should?
• Did you realise that the size of your store impacts the amount you pay for music licensing?
• Did you know that by using a built-for-business in-store music streaming service – your licensing will cost you half the price of using a personal music streaming account?

Read on to learn more find out how POSmusic can help. 

How public performance music licensing works

The Australian Copyright Act (1968) gives songwriters, composers, and music publishers the right to control how their music is used.

So, whenever music is played or performed publicly, that music use almost always requires a licence.

If you play music in your business, venue or store you need a music license and permission to play or perform songs publicly.

This ensures that every time a musician or composer’s song is played – they are accurately paid.

(Source – APRA OneMusic)

Music license types explained

Any business that plays CDs or streams music in-store are required to hold a PPCA licence as well as an APRA AMCOS licence. These licenses cover 2 types of copyrights.

PPCA
The Phonographic Performance Company of Australia Ltd. (PPCA) grants licences for the broadcast, communication or public playing of recorded music (such as CDs, records and digital downloads or streams) or music videos.

APRA AMCOS
APRA AMCOS grants licences for the live performance, broadcast, communication, public playing or reproduction of its members’ musical works.

Where do the fees go?

APRA AMCOS licensing fees
Approximately 85 per cent of your licence fee goes straight back to songwriters, composers and publisher members as royalties.

PPCA licensing fees
The remaining 15 per cent is used to administer these royalties.

How POSmusic can help

We understand that music licensing for business can feel like an overwhelming and costly overhead, so we created a built-for-business background music streaming service that combines music streaming with bundled music licensing to ensure the music you play in your venue, business or shop is legal and costs you less from day one, while still ensuring artist royalties are accurately paid.

Save time and money by bundling your licensing with your in-store music streaming and you'll enjoy:

Legal music
The POSmusic background music streaming platform is built-for-business, legal and delivers the best unlimited music from day one.

Affordable licensing
Why pay double in APRA / OneMusic fees to license your personal Spotify or Apply Music account. POSmusic is built for business so our licensing costs 50% less.  

Accurate invoicing  
We ensure your invoicing reflects the appropriate business category, venue size and capacity requirements to ensure that you are paying the correct licensing fees.

Simple bundling
By bundling your background music streaming and licensing with POSmusic you can sit back and enjoy the music while we'll take care of everything on your behalf.

We guarantee the lowest licensing fees

With POSmusic’s built for business music streaming and licensing service you'll save time and money while supporting performing artists in Australia and across the globe. Create the perfect in-store atmosphere with the latest unlimited music and be covered legally from day one with the guaranteed lowest OneMusic Australia licensing fees.  

How POSmusic streaming & licensing works

• Enjoy unlimited, on-brand in-store music streaming via your POSmusic account accessible on any internet connected device and compatible with any existing sound system including Sonos. 
• The music you stream in-store is accurately recorded each month.
• Each month the POSmusic system automatically reports exactly what songs have been played.
• Monthly music royalties are then automatically paid to OneMusic Australia without you needing to handle multiple invoices or accounts.
• OneMusic Australia then accurately pays royalties to artists, publishers and labels ensuring they are paid for the music you enjoy in-store.

About POSmusic

POSmusic is a leading Australian owned and operated in-store and background music provider delivering bespoke built-for-business music streaming solutions with market-leading simplicity, scalability, automation and control.

Simply stream, schedule, mix and control perfectly curated playlists for businesses of every size and type.

• we guarantee unlimited music so good, staff won’t hijack the play list
• happier teams delivering positive customer service results
• perfect atmosphere zero offensive lyrics, zero music repeats
• simple music scheduling and multi-site control
• the most affordable music-for-business streaming & licensing

Join the Mix Today

Contact us to discuss music licensing tailored to you.

Try POSmusic streaming free for a month and enjoy happier staff, engaged customers and positive in-store results.