Do You Even Owe? The Music-Source Fork
Whether your venue owes public-performance fees for the music it plays turns on one thing first, and it is not your square footage. It is where the music comes from. A 900-square-foot cafe playing a personal Spotify account owes public-performance fees. A 5,000-square-foot restaurant playing only over-the-air radio may owe nothing. The size of the room is a later question, and for most venues it never comes up at all, because the one exemption that turns on size reaches only a broadcast radio or television signal.
What You Need to Know
- The obligation attaches to the public performance of the underlying song, the musical composition, under 17 U.S.C. §106(4). That right belongs to songwriters and publishers, and the PROs (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and GMR) license it on their behalf.
- Recorded and streamed music (Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, CDs, downloads, a commercial background-music service), live music, DJs, and karaoke all create that obligation for a commercial venue, at any size. They are the great majority of venues, and the honest answer for them is that a license applies.
- Only a broadcast radio or television signal can fall inside the one size-based exemption, 17 U.S.C. §110(5)(B). If your source is broadcast, the exemption is worth testing. If it is anything else, the exemption is not the question to spend time on.
- Your personal or paid music subscription, the DJ or band you hired, and your cable package generally do not cover the venue’s obligation. Why they do not is the most common and most expensive misreading in this area.
- A licensing letter from ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, or GMR is lawful collection by the copyright owners’ authorized agent, not a scam. Whether you owe, and to whom, is a separate question that the source fork below answers.
If a letter or call has already arrived and you need to decide what to do about that specific contact, the sequence is set out on the hub page on handling a PRO letter or call and the page on responding to a PRO demand letter. If your source is a broadcast signal and you want to test the exemption directly, that logic lives on the §110(5)(B) exemption page, which runs a self-check. The prior question comes first: does your setup owe at all?
The Question Is Your Source, Not Your Size
The version of this that circulates online merges “small venue” with “exempt.” It is wrong in both directions, and the error changes the answer.
Federal copyright law reserves the right to perform a musical work publicly to the copyright owner. Playing a song in a space open to the public is a public performance of that song, whether the sound comes from a live band, a CD, a streaming app, or a set of speakers wired to a media player. That is the obligation the PROs collect on. It exists independently of how large the room is.
There is exactly one exemption in the statute that turns on square footage, and it applies only to a signal “originated by a radio or television broadcast station licensed as such by the Federal Communications Commission,” or, for the picture portion, one carried by a cable system or satellite carrier. A Spotify playlist, a CD, a background-music subscription, live performers, and karaoke are not a broadcast signal, so the size test never reaches them. For a commercial venue, they owe at any size. A broadcast signal can qualify, but only if it also clears a set of conditions on size, charge, and re-transmission. How that test actually works, the thresholds and the equipment limits, is covered in depth on the §110(5)(B) exemption page. The point for the source fork is narrower and comes first: unless your source is broadcast, the exemption is closed before size ever enters the analysis.
The Source-Bucket Table
Find the row that matches how your venue actually plays music. The source decides the obligation; the size test is only ever a second step, and only for the broadcast rows.
| Your Music Source | Creates a Public-Performance Obligation? | Can the One Size-Based Exemption Reach It? | Your Next Step |
|---|---|---|---|
| Over-the-air AM/FM radio, received on-site | Yes, a public performance | Yes, this is the case the exemption was written for | Test it against the exemption |
| Broadcast TV (antenna, cable, or satellite) | Yes | Yes, for the audiovisual case | Test the audiovisual exemption |
| Personal Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora | Yes | No, it is not a broadcast signal | A license applies at any size |
| CDs, downloads, a hard-drive or jukebox playlist | Yes | No | A license applies at any size |
| A commercial background-music service | Yes | No | A license applies, but your plan may already include it |
| Live band, solo performer, or DJ | Yes | No | A license applies at any size |
| Karaoke | Yes | No | A license applies at any size |
If your source sits in any of the “No” rows, the size of your venue does not change the answer, and the square-footage conversation should stop there. If it is one of the two broadcast rows, the exemption is genuinely available and worth running through the test.
The Right at Stake Is the Song, Not the Recording
The single fact that resolves most of the confusion is what right is actually being licensed. The PROs administer the public-performance right in the musical composition, the underlying song, its melody and lyrics, under §106(4). Every public performance of a song uses that composition, no matter what medium delivers it. A cover band performs the composition. A CD performs the composition. A Spotify stream performs the composition.
The sound recording, the specific master track a label released, is a separate copyright. Under §106(6), sound recordings carry a public-performance right only “by means of a digital audio transmission,” not for ordinary in-venue playback over speakers. That is why “I bought the CD” or “I pay for the recording” misses the obligation: owning or licensing a copy of the recording is not the same as holding the right to perform the composition publicly. The composition right is the one the venue needs, and it is the one a blanket PRO license supplies.
Why “Something Already Covers Me” Usually Doesn’t
Most operators who conclude they owe nothing have attached the obligation to something they already pay for. Three versions of that reasoning are common, and each one leaves the composition right unaddressed.
“My streaming subscription covers it.” A consumer streaming account is licensed for personal use only. Spotify’s Terms of Use, for example, grant “limited, non-exclusive, revocable permission to make personal, non-commercial use of the Spotify Service and the Content.” Playing that account through a venue’s speakers is a commercial public performance the subscription does not authorize, which is why services like Spotify sell a separate business product. The personal subscription covers the listener at home; it does not carry the venue’s §106(4) obligation.
“The DJ, the band, or the karaoke host handles their own licensing.” Hiring a performer does not move the public-performance obligation off the establishment. The venue is the party communicating the performance to the public, and it remains liable for that performance regardless of who is on the stage or behind the decks. A performer’s own arrangements do not license the room. The applied detail for these setups lives on the future pages covering live and cover music, DJs, and karaoke; the fork answer is that all three owe.
“My cable or TV package covers the music.” A cable or satellite subscription pays for delivery of the broadcast, and a broadcast television signal is the one case that can reach the size-based exemption, which is why a sports bar showing games on a limited number of sets is often the honest “may owe nothing” case. That is a narrow, source-specific result, not a general coverage. If the same venue also runs a streaming playlist or a live act, those sources owe on their own terms.
The one partial exception is a commercial background-music service. Some of these services bundle the PRO licensing into the subscription and some do not, so the plan itself decides whether the venue is already covered for that source. That is worth confirming against the specific plan, and the streaming and background-music page covers how to read it.
If You Play Music From More Than One Source
Many venues are in several rows at once: radio during the day, a live band on Friday, a TV over the bar, a streaming playlist at brunch. The obligation is decided source by source, not by picking the most favorable one. If any single source that plays in the venue falls outside the exemption, a license applies to that source, even if another source in the same room qualifies for the broadcast exemption. Stopping one source does not resolve a performance that already happened on another, and adding a qualifying broadcast signal does not cure a streaming playlist running alongside it.
Where You Go From Here
The honest reading of the source fork is that most venues playing music owe public-performance fees, because most play recorded, streamed, or live music that no exemption reaches. That is the answer, not a failure of the analysis.
- If your only source is a broadcast radio or TV signal, the exemption is genuinely in play. Run your setup through the §110(5)(B) exemption page, which walks the source, size, charge, and re-transmission conditions in order and returns a definite result.
- If your source is recorded, streamed, live, or karaoke, the exemption does not apply and a license does. The useful next questions are what a blanket license covers, which of the four organizations you need, and what it costs, which are covered on which PROs apply and what a license costs.
- If a letter or call has already arrived, the source fork tells you whether the underlying claim is likely valid; the steps for verifying and answering that specific contact are on the page on responding to a PRO demand letter and the hub page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I Need a Music License to Play Spotify in My Bar?
Yes. A personal or paid Spotify account is licensed for personal, non-commercial use only, and playing it in a space open to the public is a public performance of the underlying songs under §106(4). That obligation applies regardless of the size of the bar, because streaming is not a broadcast signal and cannot reach the one size-based exemption. Spotify sells a separate business product for commercial settings, but even a business music service only resolves the source it supplies; it does not exempt the venue from the public-performance right.
Does Playing the Radio Avoid a License?
For over-the-air AM/FM radio received on-site, it can. Broadcast radio is the specific case the §110(5)(B) exemption was written for, and a qualifying venue that plays only that signal, charges no admission to hear it, and does not re-transmit it beyond the premises can be exempt. The exemption stops applying the moment the source changes to a streaming service, a playlist, a CD, or live performers. Whether a particular radio setup clears the size and equipment conditions is covered on the exemption page.
Does Hiring a Live Band or DJ Move the Obligation Off My Venue?
No. The establishment is the party performing the music publicly for its patrons, and it remains liable for that performance regardless of who is playing. A band’s or DJ’s own arrangements do not license the venue, and live and cover music are outside the size-based exemption at any size. Original music that is genuinely and entirely owned by the performer is a different situation, because there is no separate rights-holder to license; that narrow case is covered on the live-music page.
Is a Small Restaurant Automatically Exempt?
No. Size alone never exempts a venue. A small restaurant playing recorded or streamed music owes a public-performance license no matter how small it is, because that music is outside §110(5)(B). A small restaurant under the statutory size threshold that plays only over-the-air radio or broadcast TV, with no cover charge and no re-transmission, can be exempt. The deciding factor is the source first; the size test only runs once the source is a qualifying broadcast signal. The size thresholds and conditions are covered on the exemption page.
Does My Background-Music Service Cover the Licensing?
It depends on the plan. A commercial background-music service is not a broadcast signal, so it cannot reach the size-based exemption, but some of these services bundle the PRO licensing into the subscription and some do not. The subscription terms for the specific plan decide whether the venue is already covered for that source. Confirm it against the plan rather than assuming, and note that a service covering its own catalog still does not license any other source the venue plays, such as a live band or a separate streaming account.