Music licensing for Australian venues
Two licences, not one. Only one of them is yours.
And nobody ever explains which.
This is the part of buying background music that gets muddled most often, and the muddle is expensive in both directions - venues who think they are covered and are not, and venues paying for something twice. It is not complicated once it is laid out, so here it is laid out.
Illustrative - AI generated, not photographs of real customers.
The whole thing in one screen
One licence covers supplying the music. The other covers playing it.
They are held by different people, they are paid to different places, and having one has never meant you have the other. Every argument about music licensing in a venue comes back to somebody assuming these are the same thing.
Ours - included in what you pay us
The licence to supply the music
We are licensed to supply the same curated music to many businesses at once - one to many. It is what lets us put a channel into your bar at all, and it is the licence a consumer streaming app does not hold and cannot pass on to you.
You never see it, you never file it, and it costs you nothing beyond what you already pay us.
Yours - and it stays yours
The public performance licence
Any business playing music where customers or staff can hear it needs a public performance licence for that premises. It comes from OneMusic, the single licensing body APRA AMCOS and PPCA set up so a venue deals with one organisation instead of two.
It is payable whoever supplies the music - us, a competitor, a radio, a live band or a phone on the aux. Our monthly fee does not include it.
What we do about the second one: we work out the right tier for your premises, collect it alongside your account and remit it, at cost, with nothing added on top. It is one less thing on your desk without being buried in your bill.
Per premises. Two venues under one company are two licences.
Can I play Spotify in my business?
The app on somebody's phone is not licensed to play in your bar.
Consumer Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music are licensed one to one - for one person, at home or in the car. Running one through the PA in a venue is against their own terms of service, however good the playlist is.
That is not us being precious about it. It is written into the agreement whoever set the account up already agreed to, and it has nothing to do with price. A personal account is also not a public performance licence, so a venue on the back-bar phone is usually short of both licences at once, not one.
- A personal streaming account is not a business music supply. Nothing you can pay them will make it one.
- It is not a substitute for your OneMusic licence either. Those are two separate gaps.
- Nobody behind the bar should have to think about this. That is the actual point of moving off it.
Switching
What actually changes on your licence when you come to us.
It depends on what is playing now, and it is worth being honest about all three cases rather than only the flattering one.
Coming off a personal streaming account
Usually down
A shop running a personal streaming service sits on the tier built for exactly that. Moving to a commercial background music supplier normally moves it down a tier. In hospitality the tier itself is driven by other things, but the digital delivery component a personal streaming service adds comes off.
Coming off a plain radio
Probably up
A venue playing nothing but a broadcast radio is on the cheapest tier there is. Moving to a commercial supplier can put that licence up rather than down. It is usually still the right move for the room - but we would rather say so now than have you find it on an invoice.
Coming off another supplier
No change
You were already on the commercial supplier tier and you stay on it. What changes is who does the admin, and that we remit it at cost rather than making a margin on it.
One claim to be careful of. You will hear that the licence saving pays for the music service. It does not. For most small venues it covers a good part of what they pay a supplier, and no more than that - and how much depends on the floor area, the screens and what was playing before. We will do the sums for your premises rather than hand you somebody else's number.
OneMusic rate cards reprice on 1 September each year, which is why there are no figures on this page. Ask and we will quote against the current card.
Straight answers
Music licensing questions we actually get asked.
Do I need a licence to play music in my venue in Australia?
Yes. Any business playing music where customers or staff can hear it needs a public performance licence for that premises, and that is true whoever supplies the music - a streaming app, a radio, a live band or us. In Australia it comes from OneMusic, which APRA AMCOS and PPCA set up so a venue deals with one body instead of two.
It is charged per premises, and it is separate from whatever you pay your music supplier. Two pubs under one company are two licences.
Can I play Spotify in my business?
Not on a personal account, no. Consumer Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music are licensed one to one - for you, personally, at home or in the car. Running one through the PA in a venue is against their own terms of service, however good the playlist is.
That is not us being precious about it. It is written into the agreement whoever set it up already agreed to. eJukebox is licensed one to many, which is what supplying music to a business actually requires.
Is the OneMusic licence included in what I pay eJukebox?
No, and anybody telling you otherwise has blurred two different licences. Ours covers us supplying the music to you. Yours covers you playing it in public, and it stays yours whoever you buy music from.
What we do is collect it and remit it for you, at cost, with nothing added on top. One less piece of paperwork, without it being buried in the bill.
What does the eJukebox licence actually cover?
We are licensed to supply the same curated music to many businesses at once - one to many. That is the licence a consumer streaming app does not hold and cannot pass on to you.
It is why the music in your room is on the right side of the law from the first day. Your own OneMusic public performance licence is still a separate thing - we work out which tier your premises sits on, collect it and remit it at cost, so nobody behind the bar has to think about it again.
Will switching to eJukebox change my OneMusic bill?
It can, and which way depends entirely on what is playing now. A shop coming off a personal streaming account usually moves down onto the tier for venues using a commercial background music supplier. For a pub the tier is set by how many screens you have rather than by the music, so the tier itself does not move - what comes off is the digital delivery component a personal streaming service adds.
Be careful of one claim you will hear elsewhere. The licence saving covers a good part of what a venue pays for its music, but it does not pay for the music service. We would rather do the sums for your premises than hand you a number that turns out to be somebody else's.
What if we have only ever had the radio on?
Then say so early, because it changes the answer. A venue playing nothing but a plain broadcast radio sits on the cheapest tier there is, and moving to a commercial supplier can put that licence up rather than down.
It is usually still the right move for the room, but we would rather tell you that up front than have you find it on an invoice.
Do zones change the licence?
No. Zones inside one venue affect what you pay us, not what you pay OneMusic. The licence is per premises, and for hospitality the tier is driven by things like how many screens are up, not by how many places the music reaches.
Who does the paperwork?
We do. You tell us about the premises - what sort of venue it is, roughly how big, what is on the screens - and we work out the right tier, collect the licence fee alongside your account and remit it.
If OneMusic needs something, it comes through us. You should never have to become an expert on this to play music in your own bar.
This page is a plain-English explanation, not legal advice. Your own licence is between you and OneMusic - what we do is work out the right tier, collect it and remit it at cost.
Tell us what is playing now and we will tell you where you stand.
What sort of venue, roughly how big, and what the music is coming out of today. We will work out which tier your premises sits on and what changes if you move - before anybody signs anything.
A person reads every enquiry - normally back the same day.