Music Licensing for Cafes and Restaurants - Hospitality and Dining

If you are playing music in your cafe or restaurant, it is highly likely you need a 'public performance' music licence. Almost all popular music heard on TV, radio and streaming services is protected by copyright law. This applies to businesses who plays music, no matter the industry.

The media, entertainment, hospitality, retail, and fitness industries are just a few examples of sectors that rely heavily on music to create atmosphere, increase customer satisfaction, and positively influence customer experience. 

However, not all businesses understand that the ‘public performance’ of music is also protected by copyright, which means that businesses need to get permission from the owner of the copyright in the music before they play that music in their business. 

OneMusic is authorised to issue ‘public performance’ music licences on behalf of copyright owners for the vast majority of commercial music from around the world. 

No - subscribing to a streaming service (paid or free) or even just turning on the radio doesn’t automatically give you the legal right to play that music in your business. 

Firstly, the most popular streaming services that most of us use every day are only for our personal use (take a look at your music streaming service’s Terms of Use to see this in play). 

More importantly, to play music that is protected by copyright ‘in public’ (that is, in your business), you need to get permission from the owners of that music copyright. 

When your business has a OneMusic licence, you have the right to play the vast majority of popular and well-recognised music from around the world.

‘Royalties’ are what is paid to music creators when their copyright-protected music is used, particularly by other people. For instance, by radio stations, on TV or when played ‘in public’ by a business. 

OneMusic keeps track of the music being played in a huge database that has been collected from music users across Australia, including from radio stations, TV broadcasts, music streaming services and live performances. 

OneMusic then pays APRA AMCOS and PPCA the licence fees it collects so that they can pay ‘royalties’ to help music creators continue their work.

What happens if a business doesn’t pay for a music licence? Playing music that is protected by copyright in a business without permission may be an infringement of copyright, which may lead to legal action and significant costs.

A court proceeding can result in your business having to pay, not only the licence fees that would have applied, but additional costs such as ‘damages’ and legal fees. Read more.

OneMusic is a genuine music licensing organisation that has issued hundreds of thousands of ‘public performance’ music licences to businesses, individuals and organisations throughout Australia since 2019.

You can easily confirm OneMusic’s legitimacy by checking with various official websites, such as The Australian Business Licence and Information Service and the Australian Copyright Council.

Non personal/commercial use of music in a social media or YouTube video will require direct permission from the rights holders of the songs in question. These are separate to the rights provided via a OneMusic licence. Please see our guide on synchronisation rights.

Personal/non-commercial use of music in social media videos is covered under our agreements with the social media platforms. Please refer to the music-use policy of the social platform in question for more information. 

The music rights organisations behind OneMusic have been licensing the use of music for almost 100 years. Launched in 2019, OneMusic is a joint initiative of APRA AMCOS and PPCA. In an effort to simplify the licensing process for customers, one licence was created to cover music use by songwriters, publishers, recording artists, record labels and composers.