Music played in a store, music played in a salon, music played in a waiting room, music played in a treatment room is legally different to music at home.
If you are playing music in your store, 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.
Copyright laws in Australia exist to protect the rights of copyright owners - to ensure their creative works are appropriately protected and valued. This is the same for music and music creators and thanks to the various industries that rely on music as an important part of their businesses, music licensing provides music creators with a steady stream of revenue so they can continue their creative work. These are referred to as royalties.
The money from music licence fees go to music creators. OneMusic keeps track of the music being played in a huge database drawn from radio and television stations, performance reports, streaming services, music recognition technology like Audoo and data from background music suppliers.
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 performing right 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.
"Music is one of the foundations to creating atmosphere in my tiny little workshop/store front in Yackandandah. When I first open my store in 2021, I started to create playlists based on a few topics. The first topic was hilariously just “hats”, songs about hats. There’s actually more on that theme than you could imagine. People would come into the store and laugh when something like “You Can Leave Your Hat On” or “Raspberry Berret” come on. Good way to start a convo!"
- Cat Leahy, Feather and Drum Hat Co. Yackandandah, VIC.
Music licence fees for retail depend on the size of your store, and the music source you use.
The Retail and Service Providers scheme has been developed by OneMusic Australia for the retail sector (such as fashion or grocery stores) and service providers (such as medical centres and hairdressers).
Learn more about how the licence fee for this scheme was set
Playing music in-store can be as important as how you display your products, the lighting you choose and your store fit-out. Music has a profound effect on customer behaviour, keeping people in-store longer and improving the customer experience.'
Get your music licence in minutes
Greg Natale
Small Business Association of Australia
Franchise Council of Australia
Australian Gift and Homewares Association
The Tax Institute
Music licensing 101 for Allied Health - Optometry Australia