Music for UK Pubs: Licensing, Atmosphere & the Law
Every UK pub needs TheMusicLicence to play background music legally. Here's what it costs, why Spotify breaks the rules, and how to sort your pub's sound.
Akash Kumar is a salon owner turned software founder. After years of running a hair and beauty business in the UK — and getting caught out by PPL/PRS licensing letters — he built Sonosfera to solve the problem he lived through firsthand.
Music for UK Pubs: Licensing, Atmosphere and the Law
Direct answer: Yes, UK pubs need a licence for background music. TheMusicLicence from PPL PRS covers recorded music and costs most pubs £200–£600+/year depending on your audible area and customer capacity. Spotify Premium is not a legal option — its terms explicitly ban commercial use. Sonosfera costs £19.99/month with all licensing included.
Most publicans get this wrong in the same direction: they assume paying for a Spotify subscription or tuning into a radio station is enough. It is not. The right question is not "do I have a music subscription?" but "does my subscription cover commercial performance to the public?"
Do Pubs Need a Music Licence in the UK?
Yes. Any pub playing music where customers can hear it — background tracks, a DJ set, a TV with the sound on, even a radio behind the bar — is performing that music publicly. Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, public performance of recorded music requires authorisation from the rights holders.
That authorisation comes from two organisations: PPL (representing record labels and performers) and PRS for Music (representing songwriters and publishers). Together, they issue TheMusicLicence — a single combined licence that covers both.
No licence means no legal right to play music. Not a grey area. Not a technicality. The enforcement team at PPL PRS visits premises without warning, and inspectors are specifically trained to identify unlicensed venues.
Key takeaway: If customers or staff can hear music in your pub, you almost certainly need TheMusicLicence.
What Does TheMusicLicence Cost for a Pub?
TheMusicLicence pricing for pubs is calculated primarily on your audible area (the floor space where music can be heard) and, in some tariff bands, your customer capacity. Here is a realistic breakdown:
Pub Type
Audible Area
Typical Annual Cost
Small local (single bar)
Up to 100 m²
~£200–£300/year
Medium community pub
100–300 m²
~£300–£500/year
Large pub or gastropub
300–500 m²
~£500–£700/year
Venue with function room
500 m²+
£700–£1,000+/year
Figures are approximate — PPL PRS calculate the exact tariff based on your specific premises details. You can get a quote directly at pplprs.co.uk/themusiclicence.
Note: these figures cover recorded background music only. Live music, karaoke, and DJ nights attract separate tariff calculations (covered below).
For comparison, Sonosfera costs £167.88/year (£19.99/month) — fully licensed, no separate PPL or PRS payment required. That is roughly the same as the cheapest PPL PRS band, but with the licence fee absorbed into the platform cost.
Can I Play Spotify in My Pub?
No. Spotify's Terms of Service, Section 4, explicitly prohibit commercial use. A Spotify Premium subscription grants you a personal, non-commercial licence to play music for yourself. The moment you play that music to customers in a pub — even through a Bluetooth speaker at low volume — you are in breach of Spotify's terms and UK copyright law simultaneously.
This is not hypothetical. PPL PRS inspectors know what a Spotify queue looks like on a tablet screen. Several UK hospitality businesses have faced legal claims for exactly this.
The same applies to Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, and any other consumer streaming platform. The subscription you are paying for covers you as an individual listener. It does not cover public performance to customers.
If you want to use a streaming platform in your pub, you need one specifically licensed for commercial use — such as Sonosfera, Soundtrack Your Brand, or Cloud Cover Music — or you need TheMusicLicence on top of your consumer subscription (though the consumer platforms still technically prohibit the use even then).
Key takeaway: Consumer streaming platforms prohibit commercial use in their terms of service. Using them in your pub exposes you to claims from both the platform and PPL PRS.
What About Live Music and Karaoke?
Live music and karaoke are treated differently from recorded background music — and more expensively.
Live music (a singer, a band, a DJ playing to the room) falls under a different PPL PRS tariff. You still need TheMusicLicence for the recorded elements, but the live performance attracts additional licensing fees calculated on your venue capacity and ticket prices if you charge admission.
Karaoke is specifically categorised by PPL PRS as a "specially featured music" activity. It has its own tariff, currently separate from the standard background music licence. Running karaoke without the correct tariff is a common enforcement trigger.
What Sonosfera covers: recorded background music only. If you are hosting a live band on Friday nights or running a karaoke night on Thursdays, you will still need to arrange the correct PPL PRS tariff for those events. Sonosfera handles your background music — the daily ambient sound — not your event programming.
What Most Pub Music Guides Miss
Most articles about pub music stop at "get TheMusicLicence." They miss three things that matter in practice.
First: the radio is not free. Playing BBC Radio 2 over your speakers is a public performance. The fact that the BBC broadcasts it for free to listeners does not give you the right to re-perform it commercially. You still need TheMusicLicence.
Second: outdoor areas count. If your beer garden has speakers, or if music drifts from your pub into an outdoor seating area, that space is included in your audible area calculation. Many publicans underestimate their footprint when getting a quote.
Third: TheMusicLicence auto-renews at a higher rate. The licence is indexed annually. Some pubs find a noticeable increase year-on-year without any change to their premises — just the tariff going up. Platforms like Sonosfera have a fixed monthly price, which makes budgeting cleaner.
Background Music by Pub Type
Different pub formats have different atmospheres to hit. The music choice is not just about mood — it affects dwell time, drink spend, and whether customers feel comfortable staying for another round.
The Local Pub
Goal: Familiar, comfortable, community.
BPM target: 85–100 BPM — energetic enough to prevent silence feeling awkward, calm enough that people can talk without raising their voices.
Genre: Classic rock, Britpop, soft indie, acoustic covers of familiar songs. Avoid anything too obscure — the local is not the place to introduce customers to your experimental jazz phase.
Time of day: Lunchtime drinkers want something lower-energy (70–85 BPM, background jazz or acoustic). Evening trade needs the energy lifted (90–105 BPM, something recognisable).
The Gastropub
Goal: Atmosphere that supports the food. Sophisticated, but not stiff.
BPM target: 75–95 BPM depending on service. Slower at dinner (75–85 BPM) to encourage lingering and dessert orders. Slightly faster at lunch (90–100 BPM) when you want table turnover.
Genre: Neo-soul, Indie folk, Jazz-inflected acoustic, low-key Americana. Avoid chart pop — it undercuts the premium positioning you have paid for with your kitchen fit-out.
Avoid: Silence, which makes conversations feel exposed. And anything with jarring lyrics — in a quiet gastropub, lyrics become the foreground, not the background.
The Sports Pub
Goal: Build and sustain energy around match broadcasts.
BPM target: 110–130 BPM pre-match, 95–115 BPM during quieter moments between events.
Genre: Anthemic rock, upbeat pop, UK garage, dancehall. Tracks people already associate with sporting occasions.
The licensing note: sports pubs often have multiple screens running simultaneously. Each screen playing a broadcaster's feed counts separately for licensing purposes. Check your TheMusicLicence tariff covers the full audible area including screens.
The Music Pub (Live Music Focus)
Goal: Background music that does not compete with or upstage the live acts.
Between sets: Lower energy, clearly different to the live performance — ambient, instrumental, low volume. The transition should feel deliberate, not like the PA system is compensating.
Pre-doors/before opening: You have more freedom here — build anticipation with something that suits the evening's act.
The separate licence reminder: you need the live music tariff alongside your recorded-music licence. See the PPL PRS live music tariff page for the calculation.
Dayparting: A Pub Music Schedule That Actually Works
Scheduling music by the time of day — dayparting — is one of the lowest-effort, highest-impact changes a pub can make. Dayparting music schedules for businesses work because customer psychology shifts through the day.
Time of Day
BPM Target
Goal
Genre Suggestion
11:00–13:00 (Lunch open)
85–95
Welcoming, not intrusive
Acoustic pop, Indie folk
13:00–15:00 (Lunch peak)
95–110
Energy, table turnover
Upbeat indie, Classic rock
15:00–17:00 (Afternoon lull)
75–90
Relaxed atmosphere
Jazz, Lo-fi, Acoustic
17:00–19:00 (After-work crowd)
95–110
Social energy building
Britpop, Soul, RnB
19:00–22:00 (Evening peak)
100–120
Buzz, energy, momentum
Pop, Dance, Rock anthems
22:00–Close
110–130
High energy, last-orders push
Upbeat pop, Dance
This is not just atmosphere management — it is revenue management. Research by North, Hargreaves & McKendrick consistently shows tempo influences both dwell time and average spend.
TheMusicLicence vs Sonosfera vs Spotify: Side by Side
This is the question most publicans end up asking after reading the licensing rules.
Feature
TheMusicLicence
Sonosfera
Spotify Premium
Covers public performance
Yes
Yes (included)
No
Annual cost (typical pub)
£200–£600+/year
£167.88/year (£19.99/mo)
£119.99/year (personal)
Music curation/playlists
None (you source separately)
Included
Included (not licensed)
Licensing bodies covered
PPL + PRS
PPL + PRS (direct deal)
None for commercial use
Legal for UK pub use
Yes
Yes
No
Dayparting / scheduling
N/A
Yes
Manual only
Auto-renewal price increases
Yes, annual indexing
Fixed monthly rate
Periodic increases
Setup time
Weeks (application process)
Under 5 minutes
N/A (not legal)
The honest version: TheMusicLicence is the standard route for pubs already playing music from their own system. Sonosfera is the better choice if you want licensing, curation, and scheduling without managing three separate things.
Neither option is Spotify. Spotify is not on the table for pub use.
How Much Could You Save?
Running the numbers for a medium-sized community pub:
TheMusicLicence: ~£400/year (estimate for 200 m² premises)
Sonosfera: £167.88/year
Annual saving with Sonosfera: ~£232/year
For a larger gastropub at the £600/year TheMusicLicence band, the saving is closer to £430/year.
The saving is real, but it is not the only factor. Sonosfera includes playlists built for commercial use. TheMusicLicence gives you legal cover to play whatever you want through any system. The right choice depends on whether you want a complete solution or just the licence itself.
Do pubs need a music licence in the UK?
Yes. Any pub playing recorded music where customers can hear it — including radio, background tracks, TV sound, or streaming services — needs TheMusicLicence from PPL PRS. There is no exemption for small premises or low volume. Unlicensed use is copyright infringement.
What does TheMusicLicence cost for a pub?
TheMusicLicence pricing for pubs is based primarily on audible area and capacity. A small local typically pays £200–£300/year. A medium pub with 100–300 m² audible area pays around £300–£500/year. Larger pubs and gastropubs pay £500–£700+/year. Get an exact quote at pplprs.co.uk.
Can I play Spotify in my pub?
No. Spotify's Terms of Service (Section 4) explicitly prohibit commercial use. Playing Spotify in a pub — regardless of subscription tier — breaches both Spotify's terms and UK copyright law. PPL PRS can pursue you for historic unpaid licensing fees for up to six years. See our guide on music licence fines in the UK for what enforcement looks like in practice.
What about live music and karaoke?
Live music and karaoke are covered by separate PPL PRS tariffs, not the standard background music licence. If your pub hosts live acts or runs karaoke nights, you need the additional tariff for those activities. The background music licence from Sonosfera or TheMusicLicence does not extend to live or featured-music events.
What is the cheapest legal way to play music in my pub?
The cheapest combined option (licence + curation) is Sonosfera at £19.99/month (£167.88/year). If you want to play your own curated music through your own system, TheMusicLicence is required — starting around £200/year for small premises. There is no legal option below this. Royalty-free music platforms provide an alternative if you can find tracks that suit your atmosphere — but the selection is narrower and the quality varies significantly.
Stop playing the music wrong — legally and atmospherically.
