A practical UK comparison for gym and fitness-studio owners weighing Epidemic Sound In-store against Sonosfera and other business music routes: what each covers, and the licensing question that actually decides it.
Epidemic Sound has creator/content subscriptions and a separate In-store route; UK gym owners should not treat a creator plan as venue playback cover.
In the UK, most venues that play music to customers need TheMusicLicence (covering PPL and PRS) unless they use a service that supplies its own fully-cleared catalogue.
Royalty-free and direct-licence in-store services differ on pricing route, hardware/partner setup, and what their certificate actually covers.
Sonosfera supplies its own original catalogue designed for background play, so the music itself is cleared — but it does not cover mainstream chart tracks, radio, DJs, or live music.
Match the service to your country, your venue type, and your exact playback route before you commit.
Use Sonosfera for eligible catalogue background playback in United Kingdom, then keep DJs, live music, radio, uploaded tracks, venue terms, and local permissions in their own checks.
Sonosfera was started by a salon operator who got caught out by PPL/PRS licensing letters and built the music platform they wished existed. The team behind this blog has spent years inside hair and beauty businesses, clinics, and hospitality venues — booking the bills, dealing with the licensing letters, and learning the hard way that most Spotify playlists don't work for a professional environment.
If you run a gym or fitness studio in the UK and you have been eyeing Epidemic Sound, the first question is not "is Epidemic legal?" It is which Epidemic product are you looking at? The creator and business-content plans are for soundtracking videos, ads, podcasts and social content. Epidemic Sound also has a separate In-store Music route for physical spaces. Mixing those two up is where gym owners get into trouble.
This article is for UK gym, studio and boutique-fitness owners deciding what to actually play in the room. It compares how the main in-store music services position themselves, how pricing is verified where prices are public, and — most importantly — how each one handles UK music licensing. Where a fact is not published by the provider, this guide says so rather than guessing.
Quick answer
For a UK gym, Epidemic Sound can be relevant only if you are evaluating its In-store Music route, not a creator/content subscription. A standard creator plan is for content you publish; in-venue playback needs either a dedicated in-store music service, TheMusicLicence-backed commercial music route, or a direct/royalty-free catalogue that is cleared for public business playback.
If you want an original-catalogue route built for the room itself, start with background music for gyms. If you want named artist tracks, radio, DJs, or commercial playlists, treat TheMusicLicence and a business-grade playback source as the first decision.
The thing that trips everyone up: music licence vs the right to play it
The single most expensive mistake in this category is assuming that paying for a music service means you are covered to play that music in a public space. They are two different things.
The recording and the song. Almost any commercial track has two layers of rights: the sound recording and the underlying composition (the songwriting). Different bodies collect for each.
Public performance. Playing music where customers or staff can hear it counts as a "public performance" in UK law, which generally needs permission from the rights holders for both layers.
In the UK this is normally handled through TheMusicLicence, a single licence administered by PPL PRS on behalf of two collecting societies: PPL (which represents record companies and performers for the recording) and PRS for Music (which represents songwriters, composers and publishers). If you play commercial chart music in your gym, you almost certainly need it.
There are two ways around paying that licence on top of your music subscription:
A service that supplies its own fully-cleared catalogue — original or production music where the provider has already sorted the rights, so no separate public-performance licence is required for that catalogue.
An AI-generated or royalty-free catalogue positioned as exempt from PPL/PRS.
An Epidemic Sound creator/content subscription does not solve the in-store problem, because it is oriented around content you produce, not continuous background play in a venue. Epidemic Sound's separate In-store Music route is the venue product to compare against the dedicated in-store services below.
UK in-store music services: what's public
The table below pulls together what each provider publishes about pricing route and licensing position. Confirm current prices and licence wording on the provider's own page before you rely on it — these services change tiers often.
Country-specific business plan; verify current UK plan
UK page states public performance rights are not included — get TheMusicLicence where applicable
Useful as a contrast: streaming a big catalogue can still leave you owing the licence
Two providers are worth a mention even though they did not give a clean price-and-fit row. Startle is quote/demo-led and is upfront that UK businesses usually still need PPL/PRS. Imagesound explains the PRS/PPL roles clearly and offers original-artist music, royalty-free music and licensing help, but does not publish pricing — so get a quote rather than trusting a third-hand figure.
Where Sonosfera fits — and where it doesn't
Sonosfera supplies its own original catalogue, written and produced for background play in places like gyms, studios and salons. Because the catalogue is original and the rights are cleared at source, you are not paying a separate public-performance licence to play that music in your venue. Country-aware pricing is shown live on the page rather than quoted here, because it changes: see country-aware pricing, and you can start a free trial to hear whether it suits your floor.
Be clear about the limits, because no honest service covers everything:
It is original-catalogue playback. It does not give you the right to play mainstream chart tracks, the radio, Spotify/YouTube playlists, DJs or live music — those routes carry their own obligations.
It is not legal advice for unusual setups (events, broadcasts, music you upload yourself).
If you specifically want today's top-40 on the gym floor, an original catalogue is the wrong tool — you would be back to commercial music plus TheMusicLicence.
Use the right Epidemic route. A creator/content subscription is for music in content you publish, such as videos, reels and ads. Epidemic Sound's separate In-store Music route is the product it positions for physical spaces, including gyms. Before using it, confirm the UK partner setup, venue terms and written licence evidence.
Do I need TheMusicLicence for a gym in the UK?
If you play commercial recorded music where members or staff can hear it, you very likely do. TheMusicLicence (covering PPL and PRS) is the standard UK route. The main exception is using a service whose catalogue is already fully cleared or positioned as PRS/PPL-exempt — verify that claim on the provider's own page. Check the current rate and your specific situation at PPL PRS.
What's the cheapest legitimate way to play music in a fitness studio?
The cheapest route is the lowest total cost that still matches your exact playback source. A low monthly app price is not cheap if you still need TheMusicLicence, hardware, a partner contract, or a second service. Compare current provider pricing, the official PPL PRS quote for your premises, and the certificate wording before switching.
Is royalty-free music actually licence-free in the UK?
Not automatically. "Royalty-free" describes how the provider has cleared its own catalogue; it does not override UK public-performance rules for other music. If you only ever play that provider's cleared catalogue, you can usually skip the separate licence — but the moment you add chart music, radio or playlists, the standard obligations return.
If you want a simpler route built around an original, cleared catalogue for your UK studio, review country-aware pricing, then compare the alternatives first on /compare/uk.
