If you play music in your restaurant, federal copyright law almost certainly requires you to have a restaurant music license. That applies to background playlists, live bands, DJs, karaoke, and jukeboxes alike. A personal Spotify or Apple Music subscription, a shelf of CDs, or a vinyl collection does not give you the right to play music for customers. For most restaurants, compliance means holding blanket licenses from several performing rights organizations, at a combined cost that typically runs a few thousand dollars a year.
Why Your Spotify Account Isn’t Enough
The Copyright Act gives copyright holders the exclusive right to “perform the copyrighted work publicly.”1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 106 – Exclusive Rights in Copyrighted Works 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 are gathered. A restaurant fits both descriptions on any given evening.
The format doesn’t change the analysis. Radio, television, a streaming service, a CD, a digital playlist, a DJ, a jukebox, and a live band playing cover songs are all public performances when they happen inside your dining room. Buying a song gives you the right to listen privately. Playing it for paying customers is a separate right that stays with the copyright holder.
Consumer streaming services spell this out in their own terms. Spotify tells subscribers directly: “Spotify is only for personal, non-commercial use. This means you can’t broadcast or play Spotify publicly from a business, such as bars, restaurants, schools, stores, salons, dance studios, radio stations, etc.”2Spotify. Spotify for Public or Commercial Use Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music carry the same restriction. Even a premium subscription is a private listening license, not a public performance license, and running it through your restaurant speakers puts you on the wrong side of both the service’s terms and federal copyright law.
The Small Business Exemption for Radio and TV
There is one narrow exception. Section 110(5) of the Copyright Act lets certain small establishments play music that comes from a radio or television broadcast without a license. For restaurants, the exemption applies outright if your space is smaller than 3,750 gross square feet, excluding parking areas.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 110 – Limitations on Exclusive Rights: Exemption of Certain Performances and Displays
Larger restaurants can still qualify, but only within strict equipment limits. For audio only, that means no more than six loudspeakers total, with no more than four in any single room or adjoining outdoor space. For audio and video, no more than four screens, only one per room, none larger than 55 inches diagonal, plus the same speaker limits.
The exemption only works if you meet every additional condition: the music comes from a licensed radio or TV broadcast, you don’t charge a cover or admission fee, and you don’t retransmit the signal beyond your premises. Music from CDs, personal streaming accounts, or digital playlists does not qualify, no matter how small the restaurant. If your music comes from anything other than an over-the-air radio or TV signal, you need a license.
Who You License Music From
Restaurant music licenses are handled through Performing Rights Organizations, or PROs. These groups represent songwriters, composers, and publishers. They sell blanket licenses that let you play any song in their catalog for an annual fee, then distribute royalties back to the creators.
Four PROs operate in the United States: ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.), SESAC, and GMR (Global Music Rights). Each controls a different catalog. Taylor Swift’s songs are with BMI,4BMI. Taylor Swift, Global Superstar and Record-Breaking BMI Songwriter while Bob Dylan’s are with SESAC.5SESAC. Search Repertory – Bob Dylan A license from one PRO covers only that PRO’s catalog.
Because there’s no reliable way to keep every song in a given catalog out of a general playlist, most restaurants that want to play popular music hold blanket licenses from all four. The combined annual cost is far smaller than the exposure of a single infringement lawsuit.
What a Restaurant Music License Costs
Fees depend on your restaurant’s size, occupancy, how often you play music, what kind of music you use, and whether you charge a cover. Each PRO calculates fees differently.
ASCAP charges a per-occupant fee that varies by how you use music. The minimum annual fee is $502 for any music beyond a jukebox, and jukeboxes alone carry a $237 annual fee.6ASCAP. Rate Schedule and Statement of Operating Policy for Calendar Year 2026 BMI says its restaurant license starts at roughly a dollar a day, around $365 a year, and scales up from there.7BMI. Music Licensing for Bars, Restaurants, Breweries, Wineries SESAC and GMR don’t publish their rate schedules, so you’ll need to contact them for a quote.
A small restaurant playing recorded background music only can expect the total across all four PROs to land somewhere between $2,000 and $4,000 per year. A larger venue with live music several nights a week will pay more.
How to Get Licensed
Before contacting any PRO, gather the numbers they’ll ask for:
- Square footage and seating capacity. Your fire marshal occupancy figure is what most PROs use.
- Type of music: background audio, live musicians, DJ, karaoke, jukebox, or some mix.
- How many days per week music is played.
- Whether you ever charge admission.
Each PRO has an application on its website. ASCAP and BMI offer online fee calculators so you can estimate before committing. Once you apply, the PRO sends a license agreement to sign. Most licenses run annually and renew automatically unless you cancel.
Commercial Music Services That Bundle Licensing
If juggling four PRO relationships sounds like more than you want to take on, commercial background music services exist to fold everything into one bill. Soundtrack Your Brand, Rockbot, Cloud Cover Music (Pandora’s business arm), SoundMachine, and Mood Media all bundle the necessary PRO licensing into a single monthly subscription and handle royalty payments on your behalf.
Pricing for a single location generally starts around $25 to $40 per month, depending on the provider. Many of these services also let you curate playlists, schedule music by time of day, and filter by genre or energy, features a bare PRO license doesn’t offer.
Live Bands and Cover Songs
If you hire a band or solo musician who plays cover songs, the licensing responsibility is yours, not the performer’s. ASCAP puts it plainly: “Since it is the business owner who obtains the ultimate benefit from the performance, it is the business owner who obtains the license.”8ASCAP. Why ASCAP Licenses Bars, Restaurants and Music Venues
Hiring a musician doesn’t shift the exposure. The law holds everyone who participates in or benefits from an unlicensed performance liable, and the venue is the primary target. Your blanket licenses cover live performances of the songs in each PRO’s catalog, but if you’re licensed only for recorded background music, adding live acts may require upgrading your tier. Live music generally carries a higher per-occupant rate, so check with each PRO before your first booked night.
Public Domain and Royalty-Free Music
You can skip PRO licensing entirely by playing only music in the public domain or released under a royalty-free license.9Justia. Playing Music in Stores or Restaurants – How to Avoid Copyright Infringement Lawsuits Compositions from before the 20th century, such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach, are in the public domain.
There is a catch. The composition may be public domain, but a modern recording of it is not. A 2015 recording of a Beethoven symphony by the Berlin Philharmonic carries a separate copyright held by the label or performers. To play public domain music safely, you need a recording that is itself public domain or explicitly cleared for commercial use. Royalty-free music libraries sell tracks specifically licensed for business use. Before relying on one, confirm the license covers public performance and not just personal or online use.
What Happens If You Don’t Get Licensed
p>PROs actively look for unlicensed businesses. Representatives walk into restaurants, listen, document what’s playing, and report back. If you’re playing copyrighted music without a license, discovery is a question of when, not if.
Statutory damages for copyright infringement run from $750 to $30,000 per song. If a court finds the infringement was willful, meaning you knew you needed a license and played music anyway, damages can reach $150,000 per song.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 504 – Remedies for Infringement: Damages and Profits Courts can also order you to pay the copyright holder’s attorney’s fees and court costs.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 505 – Remedies for Infringement: Costs and Attorneys Fees
In one federal case, a New Jersey restaurant was hit with $56,100 in statutory damages for playing 17 songs on an unlicensed karaoke machine, $3,300 per song, plus the plaintiff’s attorney fees. The court found the restaurant’s annual license would have cost roughly $6,500.
Standard general liability insurance policies include an “advertising injury” clause that sometimes covers copyright infringement claims, but most policies only cover unintentional infringement. If a court determines you deliberately ignored your licensing obligations, your insurer will likely deny the claim, leaving you personally on the hook for the full judgment.
If a PRO sends you a demand letter, don’t ignore it. A demand letter is an opening position, not a lawsuit, and there is usually room to get licensed going forward and negotiate the back payment. If the amount is significant or the letter threatens litigation, consult an attorney who handles intellectual property disputes before responding.