Music Licensing for Business in Australia
Playing music in a business is a little different from listening to music at home. Since you're playing for an audience with a business and commercial purpose, you will need a licence from OneMusic.
Music Licences in Australia
Businesses need three different rights to legally play music in their physical venue.
This covers the right to use a specific recording of a song.
This covers the right to use the original composition.
This allows you to play the song in a public environment.
Soundtrack Your Brand covers the first two licences, and in the Australia, public performance licences are obtained through OneMusic which is a collaboration between APRA AMCOS and PPCA.
For information on music licensing in another country, please click here.
The Value of Soundtrack
We offer a licensed music service for commercial use, with great features such as scheduling tools and an explicit filter.
Soundtrack Your Brand is able to provide this via direct relationships with publishers, performing rights organisations and record labels (including Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and more).
Our technology allows royalties to be fairly and accurately distributed back to music creators. Our Unlimited tier provides royalty payments that are approximately 5 times higher than those from streaming services for private use.
Using Unsupported Services
Services such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Tidal and Deezer are not suitable for use in business. These platforms are for personal, private use only - it is not legal to use them when playing music to an audience and you could risk being faced with a fine.
Steps to become fully licensed in Australia
1) Trial Soundtrack
Start our 14 day free trial to use our properly licensed business music service immediately. No payment or commitment required.
2) Get a Public Performance Licence
If you don't have licences from APRA AMCOS and PPCA or OneMusic, please visit OneMusic’s website to get your licence.
3) Subscribe to Soundtrack
Enjoy the world's best business music service while staying fully compliant. Select a plan and add your payment details to officially join Soundtrack.
More Information about Music Licensing in Australia
Overview
If you are running a business in Australia that plays music, you will need to consider two organisations who handle music licensing. Firstly, APRA AMCOS and secondly, PPCA. While APRA AMCOS acts on behalf of composers, songwriters and publishers, PPCA works on behalf of record companies and performers.
In a similar way to the United Kingdom, Finland and the Netherlands, the two organisations have formed a joint venture called OneMusic where companies can organise their combined music licence.
Contact
History
APRA, The Australasian Performing Right Association Limited and AMCOS, The Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society Limited were originally two individual organisations, which began operation in 1926 and 1979 respectively. It was not until 1997 that APRA and AMCOS partnered up and became one sole entity.
PPCA or the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia Limited was established in 1969, to promote the value of recorded music. In 2019, PPCA joined forces with APRA AMCOS to create OneMusic, to remove the need for separate music licences.
How to get a licence in Australia
Using the OneMusic website, businesses can purchase their music licence online by answering a series of simple questions. However, for companies that need to licence more than five locations, the customer services department will need to be contacted.