Streaming and Recorded Music in Your Venue: What You Can Legally Play

Paying for music is not the same as holding the right to perform it in public. A personal Spotify or Apple Music subscription buys personal listening. A commercial background-music service buys a defined package of rights that may or may not cover your venue. Neither one automatically settles what a bar, cafe, restaurant, or store owes when it plays recorded or streamed music for customers.

That gap is why an owner who “already pays for music” still gets a letter from ASCAP or BMI. Recorded and streamed music carry a public-performance right in the underlying song (17 U.S.C. § 106(4)), and that right is separate from the fee you pay a streaming app. The only music-source exemption that turns on venue size, 17 U.S.C. § 110(5)(B), applies solely to a broadcast radio or TV signal, not to streaming or recordings.

This page splits into two parts. Personal accounts, CDs, and playlists covers consumer services and the sources most owners assume are fine. Commercial background-music services covers the paid “for business” plans and the plan-conditionality trap, then gives the procedure to confirm your own coverage in writing.

Personal Accounts, CDs, and Playlists

The everyday setups owners reach for first are the ones their own service terms rule out for business use.

Personal Streaming Accounts Are Not Licensed for Business

A consumer streaming subscription is licensed for personal, non-commercial listening only. Spotify states it directly: “Spotify is only for personal, non-commercial use. This means you can’t broadcast or play Spotify publicly from a business, such as bars, restaurants, schools, stores, salons, dance studios, radio stations, etc.” (Spotify support, verified as of 2026-07-20). Apple, YouTube, Amazon Music, Tidal, and Deezer carry the same personal, non-commercial limit in their terms. Using a personal account for in-store music is a breach of that agreement and does not license the public performance.

Paying for Music Is Not the Same as the Right to Perform It

The most common wrong assumption is that a subscription fee, or the royalties a service pays to artists, already covers the venue. It does not, because two different rights are in play. A recording carries a sound-recording copyright, and federal law limits that copyright so it “do[es] not include any right of performance under section 106(4)” for ordinary playback (17 U.S.C. § 114). The public-performance right that a venue triggers belongs to the song’s writers and publishers under § 106(4), and that is the right the PROs (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and GMR) license. “The service pays royalties” answers a question about the recording. It does not answer whether your venue is licensed to perform the composition.

CDs and downloaded files work the same way. Owning a copy lets you listen. It does not grant the right to perform that music publicly in a business. Which sources owe, and which bucket your setup falls into, is mapped in full on the source fork overview.

The Radio and Smart-Speaker Trap

Owners often hear that “playing the radio” is exempt and reach for a radio station’s app or a smart-speaker “station” as a workaround. That misreads the exemption. Section 110(5)(B) exempts an establishment’s communication of a genuine broadcast radio signal, or an over-the-air, cable, or satellite TV signal, under size and equipment conditions, and nothing else. A station’s app, an internet-radio service, and a smart-speaker “station” are internet transmissions, not broadcast signals. They are streaming, and they owe like any other streamed source, regardless of venue size. Whether a real broadcast-radio setup qualifies for you turns on size, source, and conditions, which the Section 110(5)(B) exemption screener checks directly.

Commercial Background-Music Services

A commercial background-music service (the “for business” tier of a streaming brand, or a dedicated provider) is the legitimate path for most venues. A service like this can bundle the public-performance licensing so the venue does not pay the PROs separately. The trap is treating that coverage as a property of the brand. It is a property of your specific plan, territory, and use, and it changes.

Coverage Is Plan-Level, Not Brand-Level

Published descriptions of these services do not line up, and the differences are the whole point. One business service’s US licensing page states that its plans “include your ASCAP, BMI and GMR licenses” and that “Music from SESAC is not available on Soundtrack” (Soundtrack, US licensing page, verified as of 2026-07-20). A second service, Pandora for Business (Mood Media), is described in published summaries as covering ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC — a description this site could not confirm against the service’s own page as of 2026-07-20, and independent summaries of the same service disagree about whether GMR is included, which is itself the lesson: get the list from the service in writing, not from anyone’s summary. Two services, two different PRO sets. A service that does not carry a given PRO’s catalog leaves you exposed on the works that PRO licenses, which is exactly the gap a general PRO demand can land in.

Coverage also carries conditions the background grant does not reach. The same US licensing page states that “If your business charges admission, runs instructed fitness classes or hosts live music you might need additional licensing on top of” the service (verified as of 2026-07-20). Territory matters too: a US plan covers US public performance and does not extend abroad. Plan tier, the number of zones or locations, and the type of use each sit inside those terms.

A jukebox raises the same “someone else already handles the licensing” assumption in a different form. Whether that holds turns on the jukebox operator’s own license for the box, not on your music service or your building — a separate question with its own trap, covered on does your jukebox cover your music licensing?

Coverage Follows the Authorized Feed, Not the Room

A service license covers the music delivered through that service, not the speakers in general. If staff cast a personal Spotify account, open a station app, plug in a phone, or run a separate DJ playlist over the same system, that playback sits outside the service’s authorization even though the paid service is active on the account. Coverage is not a halo over the premises. It attaches to what is actually playing and how it is delivered, which is why source control is part of getting this right.

The 2,000-Square-Foot Reality: Retail, Salons, and Offices

Streaming and recorded music owe at any size. For establishments other than food-service or drinking establishments, such as a retail store, a salon, or an office, the Section 110(5)(B) size line is 2,000 gross square feet, and for food and drink establishments it is 3,750. That size line only ever matters for a genuine broadcast radio or TV signal. Streamed and recorded music are outside the exemption entirely, so there is no size floor for them at all. A 900-square-foot boutique playing a background playlist owes public-performance fees the same as a large store. Size does not rescue a recorded or streamed source.

Breweries and Taprooms

A brewery or taproom playing streamed or recorded playlists is in the same position as any other venue: the recorded-music source owes, and a background-music service covers it only on the plan’s stated terms. Hosting live bands, cover acts, or ticketed taproom events is a separate question with its own exposure, covered on live music and cover bands. A background-music subscription does not extend to a live performance, and many service terms say so explicitly.

Get Your Plan’s Coverage in Writing

The reliable answer is not a brand recommendation. It is a written record of what your own plan covers, produced before a dispute, not during one. Run this before you rely on any service:

1. List every way music enters your space: the background service, any personal accounts, CDs or downloads, radio or station apps, DJs, karaoke, live acts, and TV audio. Note which device and account drives each.
2. Confirm first whether an exemption applies. A genuine broadcast-radio-only setup under the size threshold may owe nothing; the exemption screener checks this before you buy anything.
3. For a paid service, request written confirmation that names the contracting legal entity and your premises address, the exact plan, the territory, the effective dates, which PROs’ catalogs are covered, and the permitted uses (background only, versus admission, fitness classes, DJs, or live music).
4. Map the residual gaps. If your service does not carry SESAC or GMR, or if you host live nights or charge admission, those uses are not covered by the background plan and are licensed separately.
5. Lock down the sources so staff cannot substitute a personal account for the authorized feed.
6. Keep the dated confirmation and a short written record of your setup on file.

If a use is not covered, the next step is pricing it, which the cost of a PRO license explains. If licensing every source looks like more than the music is worth, your real options lays out the full menu, including changing or narrowing your music use. If a PRO has already contacted you, start with the overview of what to do when a letter or call arrives and the demand-letter response walkthrough; confirm your coverage first, then respond.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I Play Spotify or Apple Music in My Restaurant?

Not on a personal account. Both services limit consumer subscriptions to personal, non-commercial use, and Spotify states plainly that you cannot play it publicly from a business. A business needs a commercial background-music service or another properly licensed source. Even then, the license covers only what that plan states it covers.

I Pay for a Business Music Service. Do I Still Need ASCAP and BMI?

It depends on what your specific plan covers. A commercial service can bundle PRO licensing so you do not pay ASCAP or BMI separately, but only for the PROs it actually carries and the uses it names. Services differ: one may include ASCAP, BMI, and GMR while excluding SESAC, and another may do the reverse. Confirm in writing which PROs’ catalogs your plan covers, and license any gap directly.

Does “The Service Pays Royalties to Artists” Mean I Am Covered?

No. Royalties paid on the recording address the sound-recording side. A venue’s public performance triggers a separate right in the underlying composition (§ 106(4)), which is what the PROs license. A service settles that composition right for you only if its plan says it provides public-performance licensing for your territory and use.

Can I Just Play the Radio or a Radio Station’s App to Stay Exempt?

Only a genuine broadcast signal can qualify for the Section 110(5)(B) exemption — over-the-air radio, or a broadcast TV station (including cable or satellite delivery of it) — and only under the exemption’s size and equipment conditions. A radio station’s app, internet radio, and a smart-speaker “station” are streaming, not broadcast, so they fall outside the exemption at any size. Use the exemption screener to check a real broadcast setup against the statute.

An Employee Plays Their Own Spotify Over the Venue’s Licensed Service. Is That a Problem?

Yes. A service license covers music delivered through that service, not the speakers themselves. A personal account played over the same system is unlicensed business use and sits outside your coverage. Set the authorized service as the only source, and restrict personal accounts on the venue’s equipment.