Music Licensing for Businesses: How to Stay Legal and Sound Like Your Brand
Turn compliance into an opportunity—use music that actually reflects who you are.
Why music matters for your business
Many brick-and-mortar businesses like cafes, shops, restaurants, community spaces, treat music as simple background noise, missing out on its real potential as a branding tool. Studies show that the right music influences mood, how long customers stay, and even how much they spend. But here's what matters most: music can reinforce your brand identity and communicate your values without saying a word. When chosen intentionally, it becomes part of the experience people remember about your space.
With the right sound, any space can deliver on what your business promises—whether that's luxury, comfort, energy, or calm. Music taps into one of our most emotional senses: hearing. That sonic consistency transforms a simple visit into a multisensory experience that people notice, talk about, and appreciate, even if they can't quite put their finger on why.
If you want to make the most of this opportunity, this guide covers the legal essentials and practical options for playing music in your business, plus tips for choosing music that actually fits your brand.
Legal framework: what is the public performance licence and why do you need it?
To play music in a space open to the public (shop, café, hotel, clinic, gym, waiting room, etc.), you need a public performance licence for that specific use. It’s not enough to “own the song” on iTunes or to have a personal Spotify or Apple Music subscription: those consumer contracts do not authorise commercial use.
To play music in a public space, three pieces must align for the use to be legal and properly documented:
Master: rights over the recording (usually held by the record label).
Composition: rights over the work (lyrics and music, usually held by the music publisher or the composer).
Public performance: the right to communicate that work to the public in a commercial space. For the composition, this is usually managed through collective management entities (PROs). For certain commercial uses and digital platforms, rights over both the master and the composition are also required.
If any of these pieces fails –for example, you have permission for the recording but not for the work, or vice versa– the risk is real: claims, financial penalties… That’s why below we show you the routes to get music for your business in a completely legal way.
How to get music for your business?
There are different routes to get music legally for your business, which you can choose depending on your context and priorities:
Option 1 – PROs or music rights organisations (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, GMR)
These are entities that manage song rights so you can use them legally in your business.
Advantages: They provide access to millions of songs and it’s the traditional route many businesses use.
Disadvantages: Sometimes you need to pay several of these organisations if your use includes works from different catalogues, and the operations (sign-ups, payments, reporting) can be heavier and fragmented. Also, they only give you legal permissions; they don’t help you choose what music to play or when. You’ll have to create the sonic identity yourself.
Option 2 – Music platforms for businesses (B2B provider)
These companies, like Soundtrack Your Brand or Cloud Cover Music, give you everything in one package: legal permissions + an app or platform to manage music across your venues.
Advantages: It’s quick and easy. If you have multiple stores, you can control the music for all of them from one place, schedule by time slots, add announcements, and see basic stats.
Disadvantages: The music selection is often more generic and limited. If you’re looking for something specific—like authentic Arabic music, special frequencies for a spa, or a very specific style that reflects your brand—you probably won’t find it in their standard catalogue.
Option 3 – Direct management with the record label
Common problems with the traditional route: In the standard market, we usually find a puzzle of fragmented rightsholders: the record label controls the master, the music publisher controls the composition, and public performance is managed by another entity (sometimes a PRO, sometimes a B2B provider, sometimes several entities depending on the territory). Coordinating all this for a specific business use involves multiple parties, multiple contracts, multiple response times… and often, legal grey areas.
Updated models that work: There are labels doing things differently to simplify and speed up the most tedious processes. At Levantine Music, the relevant rights are all unified. This makes it possible to grant the public performance licence directly for your business’s defined use, with the master and the composition already covered under the same legal umbrella.
This translates into:
Legal peace of mind: we minimise legal risks.
A single point of contact: forget chasing the label, publisher, and rights organisation separately.
Comprehensive, coherent coverage: you’ll receive a document/licence that ties up all fronts for the same use.
Speed and less friction: shorter onboarding times, clear terms, and simple renewals.
In addition, you’ll receive guidance on the music you’ll use for your brand, from music industry professionals. If you want authentic Arabic music, relaxation frequencies for your spa, or a contemporary style that sets you apart, Levantine Music helps you design it.
How to choose the right music for your business
Before deciding how you want your business to sound, you need to clearly define what matters most: your own brand. From objectives to the values behind the proposition, everything must align in the same direction. Music will help you convey what differentiates and characterises your business, and for that we show you three musical “families” where you’ll find a very wide range of scenarios:
Traditional & Regional: Traditional music works very well for moments that require cultural authenticity and emotional weight. It’s ideal for hotels, themed restaurants, or any space that wants to anchor its narrative to a specific geography. For example, Levantine Music works with Arab and Middle Eastern artists who use traditional musical forms and instruments, such as the oud, qanun, ney, darbuka, etc.
New Age: This genre helps a lot to create atmospheres of relaxation and inspiration, combining digital and acoustic instruments with specific wellbeing frequencies (432Hz, 528Hz, 741Hz). Levantine Music offers a broad catalogue (with hundreds of millions of listens) ideal for clinics, spas, and contemplative brand worlds, where the goal is to reduce tension and support calm states.
Fresh Sounds: From pop and singer-songwriter to lo-fi, jazz, hip hop, or orchestral; contemporary music with a current feel without losing depth. Perfect for retail and hospitality that want to sound modern and approachable without becoming generic or predictable.
One piece of advice we give to every business we work with is to define what we want people to feel at each moment of the day (opening, peak hours, closing) and in each area (entrance, aisles, fitting rooms, checkout). Then we assign playlists that reinforce that emotional arc. When that fit is done well, the music supports the commercial message without shouting it.
Sync for branded content: videos, campaigns, and activations
Another common need for businesses with a digital presence is using music in content: brand videos, ads, immersive experiences, hybrid events, social media, etc. This is no longer “public performance in a venue”; it’s synchronisation music (sync): attaching a music recording to image or an audiovisual medium.
Levantine Music grants sync licences with the one-stop sync licensing model, where you obtain the master and composition licences in one place. This speeds up processes and reduces friction with creative teams.
If your business is interested in the unified public performance model and you also produce audiovisual content frequently, having both fronts under the same roof saves time, reduces contractual ambiguities, and simplifies reporting.
Step by step to get music for your business:
Audit the situation: analyse in which sites the music will be played, at what times, in which zones, devices, volume levels, amount of content, etc.
Choose the route: PROs, a B2B provider, or unified direct management with the label.
Define the repertoire: create a sonic identity aligned with your brand and message; define lists by time of day and by areas of your business, etc.
Sign and document: it’s very important to clearly state territory, term, and permitted uses.
Implement: play playlists and provide basic training to staff.
Measure: incidents, customer feedback, changes in dwell time, etc.
Improve: test from time to time until you find the music that best fits your business, and adjust operational flows each quarter.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
Mistake 1: Using personal apps in a commercial environment
Apps like Spotify or Apple Music do NOT cover public performance rights. Be very careful: even if “no one has told you anything,” the legal risk is there and penalties can be significant.
Mistake 2: Assuming that “buying the song” on iTunes is enough
Buying a song gives you the right to listen to it on your personal device; it does NOT give you the right to play it in a commercial space open to the public.
Mistake 3: Confusing public performance with sync
If video or an audiovisual medium is involved (a spot playing on screens inside the store, content for social media), we’re no longer talking about public performance; we’re talking about synchronisation, which requires different licences.
Mistake 4: Not documenting properly
Without clear, traceable contracts, music is the first thing that gets shut down when legal doubts or audits arise, and it usually happens at the worst possible moment.
Mistake 5: Not training the team
If staff don’t understand why they can’t connect their personal Spotify to the sound system, they’ll do it because “it’s easier.” Spend 10 minutes explaining the basic legal framework and the importance of the right music for your business.
Conclusion
A well-solved music licence for business isn’t only “complying with regulations to avoid fines”; it’s sounding like your brand every day, across all locations and digital spaces, in a consistent and traceable way.
If you’re looking for speed, unified legal management, and a musical universe that sets you apart and reinforces your brand, Levantine Music’s unified direct management offers the essentials: a single point of contact, comprehensive coverage, and curation that turns every visit into a memorable experience.
