In the United States, the rights to play popular music in a business are split across three main Performing Rights Organisations, and a license from one does not cover the others. This guide explains what each organisation covers, why most venues end up needing all three, what the combined bill typically looks like, and how a direct-license catalogue works as an alternative for background music.
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SOCAN and Re:Sound administer two distinct layers of rights in Canada. SOCAN represents the public performance rights of songwriters, composers and music publishers — the musical works themselves. Re:Sound represents the public performance rights of recording artists and record companies — the sound recordings. The two layers do not overlap: a SOCAN license grants nothing over the recordings, and a Re:Sound license grants nothing over the compositions. A business that plays music from their repertoires generally needs both.
Since 2019 the two organisations operate Entandem, a joint venture created precisely to remove the double paperwork: a venue completes both licenses through a single transaction, with one point of contact and one payment. The tariffs remain those certified by the Copyright Board of Canada for each organisation.
The key point: in Canada the music license question always has two layers — the works and the recordings. Entandem combines the two licenses into one invoice, but the cost remains the sum of both, plus the music source itself, which is a separate cost layer.
The figures below are orders of magnitude for a small, single-location business playing background music. Real fees scale with occupancy, floor area and music usage, and each organisation revises its rates periodically.
SOCAN administers the works of songwriters, composers and publishers. For a small business playing background music, the annual tariff historically starts in the low hundreds of Canadian dollars and scales with capacity, floor area and how the music is used. Venues with live music, dancing or events pay materially more. Current tariffs: socan.com
Re:Sound administers the second layer: the sound recordings and the artists who performed them. Its tariffs, certified by the Copyright Board of Canada like SOCAN's, sit in a comparable order of magnitude and likewise depend on venue type, size and usage, with separate tariffs for dancing, fitness activities and events. Current tariffs: resound.ca
Entandem is not a third fee: it is the joint venture through which both licenses are completed. One registration, one point of contact, one invoice covering both SOCAN and Re:Sound. The amounts remain those set by the certified tariffs of each organisation. How it works: entandemlicensing.com
Adding the entry-level tariffs of the two organisations, the combined annual bill for even a small single-location venue commonly lands in the hundreds of Canadian dollars, and easily above a thousand for venues with meaningful capacity — and that is the floor, not the average. Restaurants with larger dining rooms, stores with bigger audible floor areas, hotels with multiple public spaces, and any venue with live music or dancing sit well above it. On top of the licenses, the venue still needs a music source designed for commercial use, which is a further recurring cost.
And Spotify does not replace any of this. Consumer accounts on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music and Amazon Music are licensed for personal use only; their terms of service explicitly exclude playback in commercial premises. A personal streaming subscription is not a music license for a business — full details in our guide Can I use Spotify in my business?
The legal framework recognises that catalogues of works outside the repertoires administered by collecting societies are a legitimate alternative for commercial venues. When a service provider produces music in-house or works with a catalogue that has never been registered with the PROs, the works are not part of the repertoires they administer.
This is the framework under which My Corporate Radio operates. MCR is a music streaming service provider for commercial venues. The catalogue streamed to subscribers consists of works for which the rights have been settled directly between MCR and the producers and authors involved. Those works are not part of the repertoires administered by SOCAN, Re:Sound or equivalent collective management organisations in other jurisdictions.
Emanuele Carocci, a radio broadcaster with over 20 years of professional on-air experience, works as a host on national commercial radio and leads the music curation team at My Corporate Radio.
The MCR catalogue is programmed under his direction with the discipline of professional radio: five editorial stations, each built for a context — the morning service in a cafe is not the late-afternoon shift in a hotel lobby, and the curation reflects that.
For a single-location business on the Background Music plan, the all-inclusive cost is £12.99 per month, billed in GBP$16.99 per month, billed in USD€14.99 per month, billed in EUR: the curated stations, the streaming infrastructure, announcements, and documentation of the catalogue's standing outside the PRO repertoires. The 7-day free trial requires no credit card. For multi-location operators, custom pricing is available at sales@mycorporateradio.com.
SOCAN tariffs are certified by the Copyright Board of Canada. For a small business playing background music, the annual fee historically starts in the low hundreds of Canadian dollars and scales with capacity, floor area and how the music is used. Because tariffs are revised periodically, verify the current figure for a specific venue directly on socan.com.
Re:Sound covers the sound recordings and the performing artists, a separate layer from SOCAN. Its certified tariffs sit in a comparable order of magnitude and depend on venue type and usage, with separate tariffs for dancing, fitness and events. Current schedules are at resound.ca.
Entandem is the joint venture created in 2019 by SOCAN and Re:Sound to simplify licensing for Canadian businesses: one registration, one point of contact and one invoice covering both licenses. Details at entandemlicensing.com.
Generally yes, if the music played includes works and recordings from their repertoires: SOCAN covers the compositions, Re:Sound covers the recordings, and a varied popular playlist engages both layers. Entandem exists precisely to complete the two in a single transaction.
For background music specifically, a business can use a streaming service whose catalogue consists of works outside the repertoires administered by the collecting societies, with rights settled directly between the service and the producers and authors involved. My Corporate Radio operates under this model. A venue that also performs works from those repertoires will still need the relevant licenses for that repertoire.
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Official sources for current licensing rates:
SOCAN: socan.com/music-licensees
Re:Sound: resound.ca/tariffs
Entandem: entandemlicensing.com
Copyright Board of Canada: cb-cda.gc.ca
Rate schedules are published and revised by each organisation and vary by venue profile. For the figure that applies to a specific business, always consult the official organisation directly.