Is Royalty-Free Music Safe for Your Business in Australia?

“Royalty free” is a marketing phrase, not a legal clearance. Pulling “royalty free” playlists from YouTube or Spotify feels safe, but you cannot verify a single track’s real rights status, and it only takes one registered song for OneMusic (APRA AMCOS and PPCA) to build a case against your Australian venue. Melodial gives you a fully cleared catalogue and a Certificate of Compliance for A$9.99 per month.

Why the label cannot be trusted

When you grab a “royalty free” playlist off YouTube or Spotify, you are trusting a label, not a licence. There is no way to verify that every single track is genuinely free of collecting society registration, and playlists tagged “royalty free”, “no copyright” or “copyright free” routinely contain registered commercial music that was mislabelled or re-uploaded.

On top of that, a personal YouTube or Spotify account does not license commercial use at all. It is prohibited in their terms regardless of what the playlist is called. You are carrying two risks at once: the tracks may not be clean, and the account is not licensed for your venue.

One song is the whole case. A single registered track playing where customers can hear it is an unlicensed public performance under the Copyright Act 1968. It does not matter that the other 99 tracks were clean.

How they actually catch you

Enforcement is simpler than most owners expect. A representative walks into your venue as an ordinary customer, records a few seconds of whatever is playing, and runs it through music recognition technology, the same kind of tool as Shazam. If the identified track is registered with a collecting society, that recording becomes the evidence. From there, OneMusic can pursue backdated fees and, if ignored, court action. These are the penalties that follow.

With Melodial, there is nothing to get caught for

Every track in Melodial’s catalogue is owned or directly licensed by Melodial. None of it is registered with OneMusic or any other collecting society, so there is no registered work for an inspector to find, no royalties to collect, and no licence to buy from them. You are not trusting a label on a stranger’s playlist. You are playing a catalogue that has already been cleared, end to end.

The honest catch: this only holds if you play Melodial exclusively. If you also mix in radio, a personal Spotify account or chart music from another source, you would still need a OneMusic licence for that music.

Frequently asked questions

Is royalty-free music safe to play in my business?

Not when you self-source it. “Royalty free” is a marketing label, not a verifiable legal status. Tracks from YouTube or Spotify playlists are frequently mislabelled, and you cannot confirm each one is free of collecting society registration.

How can a single song be a problem?

Each registered track played in public is its own unlicensed public performance. Enforcement bodies only need to identify one to build a case. The rest of your playlist being clean is no defence.

How would they find out what I am playing?

A representative visits as a customer, records a short clip and identifies the track with music recognition technology like Shazam. If it is registered, that recording is the evidence.

How does Melodial guarantee the music is clean?

Melodial owns or directly licenses every track, so none of the catalogue is registered with any collecting society. You can download a Certificate of Compliance proving it at any time.