In the United Kingdom the right to play popular music in a business is split across two layers — the musical works and the sound recordings — administered by two separate organisations. Since 2018 they are obtained together as a single licence. This guide explains what each organisation covers, why most venues need both, what the combined bill typically looks like, and how a proprietary catalogue produced in-house works as an alternative for background music.
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PRS for Music and PPL administer two distinct layers of rights in the UK. PRS for Music represents the public performance rights of songwriters, composers and music publishers — the musical works themselves. PPL represents the public performance rights of performers and record companies — the sound recordings. The two layers do not overlap: a PRS licence grants nothing over the recordings, and a PPL licence grants nothing over the compositions. A business that plays music from their repertoires generally needs both.
Since 2018 the two organisations operate PPL PRS Ltd, a joint venture created precisely to remove the double paperwork: a venue obtains TheMusicLicence in a single transaction, with one point of contact and one payment. The underlying tariffs remain those published by each organisation for its own repertoire.
The key point: in the UK the music licence question always has two layers — the works and the recordings. TheMusicLicence combines them 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.
PRS for Music administers the works of songwriters, composers and publishers. For a small business playing background music, the annual tariff typically starts in the low hundreds of pounds and scales with capacity, audible floor area and how the music is used. Venues with live music, dancing or events pay materially more. Current tariffs: prsformusic.com
PPL administers the second layer: the sound recordings and the performers on them. Its tariffs sit in a comparable order of magnitude and likewise depend on premises type, size and usage, with separate tariffs for dancing, fitness activities and events. Current tariffs: ppluk.com
TheMusicLicence is not a third fee: it is the single licence, issued by PPL PRS Ltd, through which both layers are covered. One registration, one point of contact, one invoice covering both PRS for Music and PPL. The amounts remain those set by the published tariffs of each organisation. How it works: pplprs.co.uk
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 pounds, and easily above a thousand for venues with meaningful capacity — and that is the floor, not the average. Restaurants with larger dining rooms, shops 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 licence, 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 licence 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 collecting societies, 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 PRS for Music, PPL 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 plus a seasonal extra, 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 collecting society repertoires. The 7-day free trial requires no credit card. For multi-location operators, custom pricing is available at sales@mycorporateradio.com.
PRS for Music tariffs are published by tariff category. For a small business playing background music, the annual fee typically starts in the low hundreds of pounds and scales with capacity, audible floor area and how the music is used. Because tariffs are revised periodically, verify the current figure for a specific venue directly on prsformusic.com.
PPL covers the sound recordings and the performers on them, a separate layer from PRS for Music. Its published tariffs sit in a comparable order of magnitude and depend on premises type and usage, with separate tariffs for dancing, fitness and events. Current schedules are at ppluk.com.
TheMusicLicence is the single licence issued by PPL PRS Ltd, the joint venture created in 2018 by PPL and PRS for Music to simplify licensing for UK businesses: one registration, one point of contact and one invoice covering both layers. Details at pplprs.co.uk.
Generally yes, if the music played includes works and recordings from their repertoires: PRS for Music covers the compositions, PPL covers the recordings, and a varied popular playlist engages both layers. TheMusicLicence exists precisely to cover 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 licences for that repertoire.
The Background Music plan costs £12.99$16.99€14.99 per month, billed in the matching currency. The 7-day free trial requires no credit card. Multi-location pricing via sales@mycorporateradio.com.
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Official sources for current licensing rates:
PPL PRS (TheMusicLicence): pplprs.co.uk
PRS for Music: prsformusic.com/licences
PPL: ppluk.com
Copyright Tribunal: gov.uk/copyright-tribunal
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.