A blanket license for music is a flat-fee annual agreement that lets a business publicly play any song in a performing rights organization’s catalog without tracking or reporting individual titles. If music plays anywhere your customers, guests, or the public can hear it, you almost certainly need one, and probably four. The United States has four major performing rights organizations (PROs), each representing a different set of songwriters and publishers, and a license from one covers nothing controlled by another.
Who Needs One
Federal copyright law gives songwriters and publishers the exclusive right to perform their works publicly.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 106 – Exclusive Rights in Copyrighted Works A public performance happens any time music is played at a place open to the public, or at any gathering of people beyond your normal circle of family and friends. That definition is broader than most people expect. It captures the obvious cases like concerts and radio broadcasts, but it also captures background music in a coffee shop, a playlist in a retail store, and a DJ at a wedding reception. Streaming through in-store speakers, running a radio station over a PA, or projecting a music video on a screen all count as public performances too.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 101 – Definitions
In practice, that pulls in a wide range of businesses:
- Restaurants, bars, and cafes with background music, jukeboxes, or live performers.
- Retail stores and salons playing music over in-store speakers.
- Hotels and fitness centers with music in lobbies, gyms, pools, or event spaces.
- Radio and TV stations broadcasting music.
- Event venues and organizers hosting concerts, weddings, corporate events, and festivals.
- Offices playing music for employees, once the audience is larger than a personal circle.
One point trips up event hosts constantly: the venue bears the licensing responsibility, not the performer. A cover band playing at your bar doesn’t carry your obligation. The license is yours.
When You Don’t Need One
Federal copyright law carves out a few exemptions worth checking before you pay for anything.
The Homestyle Exemption
If your business plays a radio or TV broadcast through a single, ordinary home-type receiver, doesn’t charge customers to hear it, and doesn’t retransmit the signal, you’re exempt.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 110 – Limitations on Exclusive Rights: Exemption of Certain Performances and Displays Hook that same signal into a commercial sound system with multiple speakers and the exemption goes away.
The Small Business Exemption
Businesses playing radio or TV broadcasts (not their own playlists) can qualify for a broader exemption based on square footage. Retail establishments under 2,000 square feet and restaurants or bars under 3,750 square feet can play broadcast transmissions without a license, regardless of the sound system.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 110 – Limitations on Exclusive Rights: Exemption of Certain Performances and Displays Larger establishments can still qualify if they cap the number of speakers and screens: no more than six loudspeakers total (four per room), and no TV screens larger than 55 inches.
This exemption applies only to broadcasts from licensed radio and TV stations. If you play your own CDs, digital files, or streaming services, the square footage rule doesn’t help.
Religious Services
Performing nondramatic musical works during religious services at a place of worship is exempt.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 110 – Limitations on Exclusive Rights: Exemption of Certain Performances and Displays Hymns and worship songs during a service are covered. Church-sponsored concerts and music at non-worship events at the same facility are not.
Why You Probably Need Four Licenses, Not One
The U.S. has four major PROs, and each represents a different roster of songwriters and publishers. A license from one gives you zero coverage for songs controlled by another.4SESAC. Frequently Asked Questions To legally play whatever comes up on the radio or a playlist, most businesses need all four:
- ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), the largest, representing over 19 million musical works.5ASCAP. Venues Refuse to Pay Songwriters While Profiting from Their Music
- BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.), comparable in size to ASCAP with its own distinct catalog.
- SESAC, a smaller, invitation-only organization with a selective roster.4SESAC. Frequently Asked Questions
- GMR (Global Music Rights), the newest and smallest, with a catalog of about 124,000 works that includes Drake, Bruce Springsteen, Bruno Mars, Billie Eilish, John Mayer, and Harry Styles.6Global Music Rights. Global Music Rights Home
GMR is the one businesses most often skip. If a customer hears “Uptown Funk” at your restaurant and you hold only ASCAP and BMI licenses, you’re still infringing, because Bruno Mars is a GMR writer.
What It Costs
Fees vary by business type, size, and how you use music. Each PRO sets its own rates, and ASCAP alone maintains more than 100 different rate schedules.7ASCAP. ASCAP Music Licensing FAQs As a benchmark, ASCAP’s “Music in Business” blanket license for 2026 starts at a minimum of $345 per year, with per-employee pricing of $0.70 for the first 10,000 employees and a maximum annual fee of $44,911.8ASCAP. Music in Business Blanket License Rate Schedule ASCAP has described the average cost for bars and restaurants as less than $2 per day.5ASCAP. Venues Refuse to Pay Songwriters While Profiting from Their Music
That’s one PRO. You pay separate fees to BMI, SESAC, and GMR. Combined annual costs for a small restaurant or bar typically run into the low thousands. Larger venues, broadcasters, and businesses with bigger audiences pay substantially more. What drives the price up: seating capacity, whether you host live music or only play recordings, and total audience reach.
Your Spotify Account Doesn’t Count
The single most common mistake: playing a personal Spotify, Apple Music, or similar streaming subscription in your business. Personal accounts don’t grant public performance rights. Spotify’s terms state that the service “is only for personal, non-commercial use” and prohibit users from “broadcast[ing] or play[ing] Spotify publicly from a business, such as bars, restaurants, schools, stores, salons, dance studios, radio stations, etc.”9Spotify. Spotify for Public or Commercial Use Other major streaming services impose similar restrictions.
Using a personal streaming account in a commercial space violates both the platform’s terms and copyright law. You’d still need blanket licenses from each PRO on top of the streaming subscription. Some commercial background music services bundle PRO fees into their pricing, which can simplify the process. Confirm before subscribing that the service actually covers all four PROs; some cover fewer and leave the rest to you.
What a Blanket License Doesn’t Cover
A blanket license covers one specific right: public performance. Other uses need different licenses.
- A synchronization (sync) license is required when you pair music with video, whether that’s a commercial, a film, YouTube content, or a social media ad. Sync licenses come from the song’s publisher, not from a PRO, and are negotiated individually.
- A master use license is required to use a specific recording of a song rather than the underlying composition. That comes from the record label. If you want the original studio version of a hit song in a commercial, you need both a sync license from the publisher and a master use license from the label.
- A per-program license is an alternative some PROs offer, mainly for broadcasters. You pay based on the music you actually use rather than for access to the whole catalog. For most small businesses, blanket licensing is simpler and usually cheaper.
A blanket license also won’t help if you’re producing video content, creating on-hold recordings, or selling products that contain music. Those uses involve reproduction and synchronization rights that sit outside what PROs handle.
What Happens If You Skip It
PROs enforce their rights. ASCAP contacts unlicensed businesses multiple times before suing, and when those efforts fail, files federal copyright infringement lawsuits.5ASCAP. Venues Refuse to Pay Songwriters While Profiting from Their Music ASCAP filed 13 separate actions against bars and restaurants in a single round of enforcement in 2024.
The financial exposure dwarfs the cost of a license. Federal copyright law allows statutory damages of $750 to $30,000 per work infringed, per song, not per incident. If a court finds the infringement was willful, meaning you knew you needed a license and didn’t get one, damages can reach $150,000 per work.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 504 – Remedies for Infringement: Damages and Profits A bar that played 10 unlicensed songs on a busy Friday night could face six figures in liability. Courts can also issue injunctions to stop the music entirely and order impounding of equipment used in the infringement.11U.S. Copyright Office. 17 USC Chapter 5 – Copyright Infringement and Remedies
How to Get Licensed
The process is straightforward, though you have to run it four times. Contact ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and GMR directly through their websites. Each will ask about your establishment type, square footage or seating capacity, whether you host live performances, and how music is used in your space. Based on that, they’ll assign you to a rate category and quote an annual fee. Applications and payments are typically handled online.
Once you’re licensed, the agreement renews annually and covers every song in that PRO’s catalog for the license period. You don’t need to log which songs you play or report titles. That’s the whole point of the blanket structure. Before you apply, check whether your situation falls under one of the exemptions. If you use a commercial background music service, confirm with the provider exactly which PROs its subscription covers before assuming you’re done.