Music Licensing for Business in France

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 license from SACEM.

Restaurant in Paris with Outdoor Seating

Music Licenses in France

Businesses need three different rights to legally play music in their physical venue.

  • record icon

    Recording Rights

    Recording Rights

    This covers the right to use a specific recording of a song.

  • Music Notes

    Publishing Rights

    Publishing Rights

    This covers the right to use the original composition.

  • Open store

    Public Performance Rights

    Public Performance Rights

    This allows you to play the song in a public environment.

In France, public performance licenses are obtained through companies such as SACEM (who also manages background music licenses on behalf of SPRE). It is vital that you obtain the correct rights to use music in your business.

For information on music licensing in another country, please click here.

Soundtrack Your Brand

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 organizations 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.

Playing Music at home

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.

"You can’t broadcast or play Spotify publicly from a business, such as bars, restaurants, schools, stores, salons, dance studios, radio stations, etc. To play in a commercial environment, check out our friends at Soundtrack Your Brand."

Spotify Support Page

How to get fully licensed in France

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 License

If you don't have a license from SACEM, please visit their website to get your license.

3) Subscribe to Soundtrack

Select a plan and add your payment details to officially join Soundtrack.

More Information about Music Licensing in France

Overview

There are different music licensing organizations to consider for those operating a business in France that plays music. These are SACEM and SPRE. Both work on behalf of music authors, composers and publishers to collect royalties throughout France and distribute these back to creators fairly.

Contact

SACEM

SPRE

History

Often referred to as SACEM, the Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs de Musique or the Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers is a French organization that is owned by its members. Since 1851, SACEM has worked to protect and promote artistic creation. They consider themselves to be world leaders in this space and aim to maximise revenues for creators while also providing a high level of support.

In 1986 SPRE was created. Its full name is La Société pour la Perception de la Rémunération Equitable de la Communication au Public des Phonogrammes du Commerce, or The Society for the Perception of Fair Renumeration for the Communication of Commercial Phonograms to the Public.

How to get a license in France

When operating a business in France, you may need permission from companies like SACEM. SPRE fees are typically collected by SACEM.

You can reach out via each website respectively to find out more about the various tariffs and costs that are involved.