Best way to play music for business use?

[Emma S]

I am looking into the best way to get the music I want into my two cafes. It is very confusing!

Both premises have a PPL/PRS licence, I am aware of the need for that.

Cafe 1 currently plays radio through a TV and we have a TV licence

Cafe 2 plays old CDs through an old sound system, which we inherited with the business.

I ideally wanted to cancel the TV licence and just stream Spotify in both premises. I have just found out however, that most commonly used streaming services in the UK are not for commercial use. There is only one that I can find for the UK (Soundtrack Your
Brand) and it is very expensive considering the cost of the PPL/PRS licence on top of it too. (Would come to upwards of £50 per month for the service plus the music licence on top for just the basic service, and considerably more for the premium one)

I don't want royalty free music, although it is a cheaper option, I want popular hits that customers will know and the flexibility to be able to choose exactly the songs I want, so the free music streaming services out there are no good for my requirement.

Does anyone know of an alternative to Soundtrack Your Brand that is a little cheaper? I understand that musicians have to make a living too, and I am happy to pay, say, £15-£20 per month but SYB seem to have a monopoly on the industry currently! I am a bit out of my depth here to be honest, tech solutions are not really my thing! TIA

 

[IanSuth]

@paulears

Isn't this your area ?

 

[paulears]

Thanks for the pointer! Spotify for business would be the best solution with the best range of well known music. Apart from the other service you mention there is a thing called business overhead radio, which I have some of my stuff on, but it's US based. There is a similar operation called Sound machine - which I think can licence UK usage. It's about £25 a month, though. The PRS/PPL thing is a bit strange, because my understanding is that strictly speaking - the PPL is the licence for the recording, and Spotify and the others look after the rights in the composition of the music - so PRS would be also paying the composer? I've not seen this written as a specific, but I get payments from Spotify AND PRS, but rarely PPL.

If you get a sensible quote I would double check with them that PRS is on top - they may advise that they already pay the artist and composer rights, so PRS would not be entitled. It's getting a mess now, but since I started having my own music on Spotify (and the others), I'm also getting more PRS payments and I don't know why?

Streaming is making things change very quickly - so some of the music I produce is covers. I simply elect to NOT allow purchases of it, just streams, and I receive a payment, but so does the person who wrote it, via the streaming service.

Spotify has two options - use their playlists for £40 a month or pick your own for £55. They're also in Stockholm, so no UK VAT to claim back.

If you find a service that will licence what you want here in the UK, double check the need for PRS and PPL - you could find, the streaming company are covering this?