Pubs & Bars Music Licence

New Customers

If you don’t currently have TheMusicLicence for your business or organisation, but are planning an event that includes the playing or performing of music in public, we can arrange for a temporary permit to cover the music usage at the event.

Contact us to set up TheMusicLicence.

Speak to our friendly team today

(8am to 6pm Monday to Thursday and 8am to 3pm Friday)

Existing licence holders

If you already have TheMusicLicence for your business or organisation and need to include an event on your music usage, please contact us and we can amend your music usage in your existing licence to ensure you are legally covered for the music at your event.

Speak to our friendly team today

(8am to 6pm Monday to Thursday and 8am to 3pm Friday)

Live music venues

If you are a live music venue, or you're planning frequent events, such as music festivals, Theatre productions or pantomimes, etc. you will need to set up TheMusicLicence.

Contact our Live Music Team to arrange TheMusicLicence.

Speak to our friendly team today

(8am to 6pm Monday to Thursday and 8am to 3pm Friday)

If you are a venue that is hosting a live event and have been asked to submit a setlist, you can do this by email or post.

Please use the details below to send your set list to us:

Email:

livemusic@pplprs.co.uk

Post:

Live Music (setlist submission)
PPL PRS Ltd
Mercury Place
St George's Street
Leicester
LE1 1QG

PPL PRS Ltd was created to provide customers with a streamlined music licensing service – TheMusicLicence – with a single point of contact to make it easier to legally play and perform music in public. PPL PRS Ltd is equally owned by PPL and PRS for Music.

PPL PRS Ltd started trading in 2018. Prior to 2018, businesses and organisations would have had to purchase two separate licences from PPL and PRS for Music instead.

Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, permission is needed from the relevant copyright holders – those who create, record and publish music – in order to play or perform music in public.

Broadly speaking, this includes any presentation of music outside of a domestic setting. For example, it will include using music in the following ways as part of your business or organisation (for the benefit of customers and/or employees): playing recorded music via any device including the radio, TV broadcasts such as sports or other audio-visual content containing music; or putting on live performances of music.

There are a range of tariffs to cover the different uses of music across various venue types. However, the use of this music will require permission from the copyright holders and TheMusicLicence will give you that permission, covering the vast majority of commercially released music.

If you play or perform music in your venue, the chances are you need TheMusicLicence.

Under The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, permission is needed from the relevant copyright holders – those people who create music – in order to play or perform music in public

Obtaining TheMusicLicence gives you this permission, in relation to the vast majority of commercially available music. This ranges from grassroots and independent artists and composers through to the biggest names in the business.

You can play music in your pub, bar or nightclub in different ways. Whether it’s playing background music for your customers via digital devices or by tuning into the radio. You can play music in the following ways:

• Radio & TV
• Streaming services - this may require a commercial streaming service. Before using platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube etc, please check that their terms and conditions allow for commercial use before playing music in your pub, bar or nightclub.
• CDs, MP3s & other recordings
• Live Music

An entertainment licence is issued by your local authority. It gives you permission to provide entertainment on your premises. It may be subject to certain conditions such as time restrictions or number of people attending. You will still need a music licence for your bar or pub.

TheMusicLicence gives you permission to play or perform the vast majority of commercially available music.. Consequently, this means that you don’t have to spend your time and energy contacting potentially hundreds of thousands of rights-holders – those people who create music – to get permission to play or perform their music in your business.

Sports programming uses more music than people realise and will often contain music that will be played in your pub or bar. Such as opening and closing titles, highlights and featured sequences as well as the advertisements during commercial breaks.

You'll therefore usually need TheMusicLicence to use the television for showing sports and other programming in public.

Yes. Whether it’s background music via your sound system or live performances on a packed Saturday night, pubs and bars can play music in outside spaces and will usually need TheMusicLicence to do so.

When you are going through the process of obtaining TheMusicLicence, if you use a television or a radio for background music, you may be asked if the device you use only receives a ‘traditional broadcast’ only.

A ‘traditional broadcast’, when using a radio or TV for background music, means the following:

• If you use a television, a traditional broadcast will constitute as BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4, S4C and Five television broadcasts only.
• If you use a radio, a traditional broadcast will constitute as BBC national and local radio stations (all Independent National Radio stations and Independent Local Radio stations, as licensed by Ofcom and listed on www.ofcom.org.uk) that are listed under AM and FM stations.

If you use a device, such as a Freeview/Smart TV to access television channels or a laptop/tablet/mobile device to view or listen to only the listed channels/radio stations above, then you would still qualify under ‘traditional broadcast’.

The use of internet only radio stations or personal streaming services do not qualify as “Traditional Broadcast only”.

If you show television channels other than the channels listed above such as Sky Sports or TNT Sports, or any music channels, this will not qualify as ‘Traditional Broadcast’.