Salon Music Licence by Country: Ireland, US, Canada, Australia & UAE

The Salon Music Licence, Country by Country (2026): Ireland, the US, Canada, Australia and the UAE

By Sonosfera Team

Ask a hairdresser in Dublin, a barber in Toronto and a beauty therapist in Dubai the same question — "do I need a licence to play music?" — and the honest answer is almost identical, even though the paperwork looks completely different. Playing recorded music where clients can hear it is a public performance in nearly every country that has copyright law. What changes across borders is not whether you owe something, but who collects it and how much.

For a broader venue overview, compare the US, Australia and UK background music licensing guide.

For Vietnam rather than one of these five markets, see the Vietnam business music licensing guide.

This guide pulls the salon question into one place for the five markets owners search for most. It replaces a shelf of country-specific posts with a single reference you can actually compare against, and every fee below was taken from the collecting society's own 2026 rate card rather than a rounded-up guess. It is general information for salon, barber, nail, brow and beauty-clinic owners, not legal advice — for an unusual setup (live music, events, a resident DJ) confirm with the relevant body.

The one thing every country agrees on

Two separate rights sit inside every commercial recording: the composition (the songwriters and publishers who wrote it) and the sound recording (the performers and label who recorded it). A salon playing chart music usually touches both. The collecting societies exist to license those rights on behalf of thousands of rights holders so you pay once instead of chasing every artist.

Do salons actually need a music licence to play background music?

In most countries, yes. The moment clients or staff can hear recorded music in a treatment area, waiting room or on the salon floor, it counts as a public performance, and public performance is a licensed act. A private playlist through earbuds is not — the same playlist over the salon speakers is. Size rarely removes the obligation; it usually just changes the band you pay.

Here is how the five markets line up before we go deep on each.

Ireland: the IMRO Dual Music Licence

Ireland is the market this page has always covered in most depth, and it is the cleanest example of the "two rights, one invoice" model.

What licence does an Irish salon need, and what does it cost in 2026?

Irish salons playing copyright music need the IMRO Dual Music Licence, which since 2016 combines IMRO (composition) and PPI (sound recording) permissions into a single agreement administered by IMRO. For 2026 the standard retail Dual Licence starts at €185.09 a year for premises up to 100 m² — a €113.11 base fee plus an area component — and rises by band with floor area, plus VAT.

A few Irish specifics worth knowing before you sign up:

• Hair and beauty has its own door. The €185.09 figure comes from IMRO's 2026 standard retail tariff; salons are licensed under IMRO's dedicated Hair, Beauty & Health category, so confirm your exact band there rather than assuming the retail number.
• Getting caught costs more than signing up. IMRO's 2026 tariff applies a 60% compliance surcharge if you fail to obtain a licence before an IMRO representative approaches you, an 8% surcharge for not using the online self-service portal, and a 12% surcharge for late payment. The cheapest route is genuinely the compliant one.
• This is not the UK system. Do not search for PPL, PRS or "TheMusicLicence" for an Irish premises, and treat any provider's "PPL/MCPS" wording as a UK statement. Ireland runs on IMRO and PPI.

If you want the practical Spotify-specific version for Ireland, the companion guide Can I play Spotify in my Irish salon? covers the consumer-account angle, and /compare/ireland lines up the background-music services side by side.

United Kingdom: one bill, two societies

UK salons are the closest cousin to Ireland. PRS for Music (composition) and PPL (sound recording) jointly issue a single invoice branded TheMusicLicence, priced by the type and size of your premises. Nail bars, in particular, have their own quirks worth reading in the dedicated nail salon music licence UK guide, and the wider cost breakdown lives in the 2026 PRS/PPL guide for UK businesses.

United States: the country where a small salon might owe nothing

The US is the odd one out, and understanding why can save an owner real money — or stop them overpaying.

Do I need ASCAP and BMI to play music in a US salon?

Usually yes for streaming or playlists, but not always for radio. US law has no general public-performance right in sound recordings played over speakers, so a brick-and-mortar salon deals only with the songwriter/publisher societies — ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR — not a Re:Sound-style recording fee. Each covers different repertoire, so one licence does not cover every song.

The genuinely useful part is the exemption most owners have never heard of. Section 110(5) of the US Copyright Act — the "business exemption" — lets a retail establishment of 2,000 gross square feet or less play music from an ordinary radio or TV broadcast with no licence and no fee at all. Above that size, it still qualifies if audio is limited to six loudspeakers, with no more than four in any single room. (Food and drink venues get a larger 3,750 sq ft threshold.)

The catch that trips people up: the exemption applies only to a normal radio or TV signal. It does not cover Spotify, a personal playlist, a CD library or a commercial music app. So a 900-square-foot US salon can legally leave the FM radio on for free, but the second it switches to a Spotify playlist, it needs either the relevant PRO licences or a music source that clears the rights for it. The deeper Spotify-specific walkthrough is in Spotify for Business alternatives that actually work.

Canada: SOCAN, Re:Sound and the Entandem front door

Canada uses two societies but has simplified the checkout.

How much is a music licence for a Canadian salon?

A Canadian salon licences through Entandem, the joint venture created by SOCAN (composition) and Re:Sound (sound recording) as a single point of contact. Background music is billed under SOCAN Tariff 15.A — 11.46¢ per square foot, minimum CAD $94.51 a year — plus Re:Sound's background-music tariff, minimum CAD $49.85. For a small salon that is roughly CAD $145 a year combined, rising with floor area.

Two practical notes for Canada: renewals run on a fixed calendar (1 January to 30 April each year), and a music-service subscription is a separate thing from the Entandem licence unless the provider spells out exactly what it includes for Canada. The Spotify-specific version for Canadian owners is Can I play Spotify in my Canadian salon?, and /compare/canada compares the provider options.

Australia: OneMusic's tiered fee

Australia consolidated its licensing years ago, which makes it one of the more transparent markets.

What does OneMusic charge an Australian salon?

Australian salons licence through OneMusic, the joint scheme run by APRA AMCOS (composition) and PPCA (sound recording), under its Retail & Service Providers category. Fees are tiered by floor area and by how you source music. A small salon of 1–50 m² on the background-music "Silver Lite" cover starts at AUD $171.94 a year (rates effective 1 September 2025 to 31 August 2026), rising by tier.

As in Canada, a background-music subscription and the OneMusic licence are two different products, and some services explicitly leave OneMusic for you to hold separately. The Spotify-specific guide for Australia is Can I play Spotify in my Australian salon?; Sonosfera's Australian salon, barbershop and spa pages sit at /australia/music-for-salons, with the full market on the Australia comparison page.

UAE and Dubai: a framework that just grew up

The Gulf is the market that has changed most, and a lot of older advice online is now out of date.

Is Spotify banned in the UAE, and what do Dubai salons actually need?

No — Spotify operates normally in the UAE for personal listening; the issue is using a personal account as a business source, which its terms prohibit anywhere. What is new is the rights side: under Federal Decree-Law No. 38 of 2021, the Emirates Music Rights Association (EMRA) became the UAE's first officially licensed collective management organisation, authorised to license both musical works and sound recordings in one place.

That is a real shift. Earlier guides described the UAE as having "no collecting society"; in 2026 that is no longer accurate. Alongside EMRA, ESMAA (a PopArabia company) represents a broad slate of international societies including PRS, SESAC, SOCAN and IMRO, and has a direct agreement with PRS for Music. For a Dubai salon the practical takeaway is to treat public playback as licensable and request the current position from EMRA rather than assuming nothing applies.

Dubai adds a second concern the other markets do not stress: content suitability. A public beauty venue in the UAE needs far more care than a home playlist around explicit, offensive or culturally inappropriate lyrics, and an algorithmic radio station is a weak control for that. A curated, mostly instrumental catalogue removes that risk as a by-product.

The universal trap: your personal Spotify (or Apple Music, or YouTube)

Every one of these markets shares the same single biggest mistake, so it is worth stating once, plainly.

Can I just use my own Spotify Premium account in the salon?

No — and Premium changes nothing here. Consumer streaming accounts are licensed for personal, private listening; Spotify's own public and commercial-use guidance says the service cannot be played publicly in businesses such as salons, and Premium only removes adverts. Paying more for a personal plan does not convert it into a public-performance right, in any country on this page.

The fix is the same everywhere: log personal accounts out of the salon speakers, choose a source that is documented for commercial use, and keep the paperwork. Radio and YouTube are not automatic shortcuts either — each carries its own conditions.

Where Sonosfera fits (and where it does not)

Here is the honest version, because overselling this helps nobody.

Sonosfera's catalogue is original music, fully AI-generated and rights-controlled by Sonosfera, created for in-venue background play. Because Sonosfera both makes and controls the recordings, playing only that catalogue does not require the usual performing-rights licences — IMRO/PPI in Ireland, PRS/PPL in the UK, ASCAP/BMI/SESAC/GMR in the US, SOCAN and Re:Sound via Entandem in Canada, or OneMusic in Australia. There is no third party to pay for those specific tracks, which is what keeps your records simple.

What it is not is a blanket shield over everything that plays in your building. The moment you also run the radio, a personal Spotify account, a resident DJ, live music or a third-party playlist, each of those sources carries its own obligation, and the relevant society still applies to them. Sonosfera cleans up the catalogue you press play on; it does not retroactively cover music from somewhere else. If your salon leans on mainstream chart hits, a mainstream provider plus the correct national licence may suit you better — if it wants calm, consistent, salon-appropriate sound with a clear record of what is actually playing, that is exactly what this is built for. Hear it first on the background music for salons page.

A five-minute compliance check for any country

1. List every source you use: Sonosfera, another service, personal Spotify, YouTube, radio, TV, staff playlists, DJs, live acts.
2. Decide who hears each one — clients, staff-only areas, or a one-off event. Client-facing playback is the part that gets licensed.
3. Find your country's society from the table above and check the band for your actual floor area. Do not budget from a stranger's blog figure — including this one — once you know your exact premises.
4. Read coverage wording, not headlines. "Reduces your licence costs" is not "no licence required." Get the exact scope in writing.
5. Keep the file. Invoices, provider licensing docs and a note of what you actually play. If a query ever lands, that file is your answer.

FAQ

Does one salon licence work across several countries?

No. Collecting societies are national. An IMRO Dual Licence covers an Irish premises, OneMusic covers an Australian one, Entandem covers a Canadian one, and so on. A salon group with sites in different countries needs the right licence in each — which is one reason a single rights-controlled catalogue can be simpler to administer across borders than mainstream repertoire.

Is "royalty-free" music automatically safe for my salon?

Not automatically. "Royalty-free" is a claim to verify, not a magic label. Check whether the catalogue actually clears public performance for your country and venue, and get that scope confirmed in writing. A track that is free for a YouTube video is not necessarily cleared for commercial in-store play.

If a staff member plays their own phone, is that my problem?

Yes. If a stylist connects a personal streaming account to the salon speakers, the business is still relying on a source whose terms do not permit public playback, and the salon — not the employee — carries the exposure. A documented, single approved source that staff are trained to use removes the guesswork.

Does having the radio on count as licensed?

It depends on the country. In the US, a small salon playing an ordinary radio or TV broadcast can fall under the §110(5) business exemption and owe nothing. In Ireland, the UK, Canada and Australia, onward public performance of a broadcast in a business can still require its own licence. Check the position for your specific market.

Sources

• IMRO — Dual Music Licence, explained — IMRO
• IMRO — Standard Tariff Retail 2026 (Dual Licence) — IMRO
• IMRO — Hair, Beauty & Health licence — IMRO
• PPI — Phonographic Performance Ireland — PPI
• 17 U.S. Code § 110 — Limitations on exclusive rights — Cornell Legal Information Institute
• Copyright Law's "Small Business Exception" (§110(5)) — Congressional Research Service
• SOCAN and Re:Sound background-music fees — University of British Columbia
• Entandem — licensing for Canadian businesses — Entandem
• OneMusic Australia — Retail & Service Providers fee guide — OneMusic Australia
• Ministry of Economy grants EMRA the first CMO licence in the UAE — CISAC
• ESMAA — music licensing in the UAE and Gulf — ESMAA
• Spotify — public and commercial use — Spotify