Multi-Site Music Licensing: One Platform Across Every Location

If you run more than one venue, the rules that apply to a single cafe apply to every one of your sites, and the cost, admin and legal risk multiply with the estate.

Every site is a public performance

Playing recorded music where customers or staff can hear it is a public performance. In nearly every country that means you need a licence that pays the people who wrote and recorded the music. This is true whether the source is the radio, a TV, a CD or a streaming app, and personal accounts like Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube explicitly prohibit business use in their terms.

The important point for operators: the licence attaches to the place where the music is played, not to your company as a whole. Ten locations means ten venues that each need to be covered. There is no head-office exemption and, in most markets, no small-business exemption either.

Why licensing is required at all

Copyright gives songwriters, composers and record labels the exclusive right to control public performance of their work. Collecting societies exist to license that right at scale and pass royalties back to rights holders. Playing music commercially without a licence is copyright infringement, and enforcement is real: backdated fees, penalties and, in some jurisdictions, court action.

The multi-site twist: different countries, different societies

A single-country operator deals with one or two organisations. A multi-national estate deals with a different set in every territory, each with its own tariffs, rules and paperwork:

United Kingdom: PPL PRS (a single invoice covering both societies). Australia and New Zealand: OneMusic. United States: ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR, typically all four. Ireland: IMRO and PPI. Europe: a national society in each country (GEMA, SACEM, SIAE and more). South Africa: SAMRO, SAMPRA and CAPASSO.

For a hotel group or retail chain operating across borders, that is a matrix of agreements to negotiate, renew and reconcile, before you have played a single track.

How the bill multiplies

Per site. Every location is charged separately, usually on floor area, occupancy or number of devices.

Per zone. Within one building, distinct areas such as a hotel lobby, bar, restaurant, pool and gym are each treated as their own music stream, each with its own tariff.

Per country. Each territory adds its own societies and rates on top.

Plus the hidden cost. The admin of tracking dozens of licences, renewal dates and separate streaming subscriptions across an estate is its own recurring expense, and every gap is a compliance risk.

One platform instead of the matrix

Melodial replaces the whole stack: fully licensed music and the public-performance rights in a single subscription, with central control of every stream and site and a flat per-stream price. No tariff guesswork, no second vendor, and one place to prove every location is covered.

Keep reading

• What happens if you don’t licence: fines & penalties
• The multi-zone hotel music playbook