Ask a café owner why they never looked into music licensing and you will almost always hear some version of the same answer. “It’s my own playlist.” “I pay for Spotify, so I’m covered.” “I bought the album, so it’s mine to play.”
That exact reasoning is what earns businesses a letter from ASCAP or BMI. It sounds logical from the counter of a coffee shop or the bar of a restaurant, but it does not hold up under copyright law, and performing rights organizations built entire enforcement operations around catching businesses who believed it.
Here are the myths that come up most often, and what is actually true in each case.
“It’s My Personal Spotify or Apple Music Account, So It’s Fine”
A personal streaming subscription is licensed for private, noncommercial listening, not for a dining room, a retail floor, or a waiting area. Playing music where the public can hear it is legally a public performance, and that right belongs to the songwriter and publisher, not to whoever pays the monthly subscription.
Every major platform excludes commercial use in its terms of service, which is why the gap between what an owner thinks they bought and what they actually bought only shows up once a PRO has already logged an hour of music on the floor.
“I’m Too Small for Anyone to Notice”
Performing rights organizations license venues of every size, and a small café is just as visible to a field representative as a regional chain. A representative typically visits as an ordinary customer, notes what is playing, and checks it against the PRO’s catalog. If there is no license on file, a letter follows, then a call, then a formal notice.
Square footage and seat count affect the ee, not whether a license is required, a pattern that shows up clearly in why cafés keep getting hit with licensing fines.
“It’s Just Background Music, Nobody’s Really Listening”
Copyright law does not distinguish between foreground and background use. If customers can hear the music in a commercial space, it counts as a public performance regardless of volume or how much attention anyone is paying it. A low-volume playlist running quietly behind conversation creates the same licensing obligation as music for restaurants played at full volume during a Friday night rush.
“I Bought the Song, So I Can Play It Anywhere”
Buying a track, an album, or a CD transfers ownership of that copy. It does not transfer the right to perform the underlying composition publicly, and those are two separate rights under copyright law. The songwriter and publisher retain the public performance right even after a copy is sold, so owning the file, the disc, or the download has no bearing on whether a business is licensed to play it out loud.
“I Only Stream Instrumental Music, So There’s Nothing to License”
Removing the lyrics does not remove the underlying copyright. An instrumental version of a song is still a performance of a copyrighted composition, and the songwriter and publisher hold the same public performance right whether or not anyone is singing along. Instrumental playlists, lounge covers, and background jazz arrangements all fall under the same licensing rules as the original recordings.
“The Radio Is Already Licensed, So I’ll Just Play That”
Radio stations carry their own broadcast licenses, and a narrow legal exemption does let some businesses play radio or television without a separate license of their own. But the exemption comes with real conditions, generally tied to a maximum square footage and a limited number of speakers, with no admission charge connected to the music.
A business that exceeds those limits or adds extra speakers falls outside the carve-out and needs its own license, even though the broadcast itself was licensed.
“I Only Play Music Through the TV, Not Speakers, So It Doesn’t Count”
A television or streaming device playing music in a public space is still a public performance. The delivery method, whether it is a soundbar, a jukebox, or a screen behind the bar, does not change the obligation. What matters is whether customers can hear it, not what hardware it is coming out of.
“Live Musicians Handle Their Own Licensing”
When a band plays covers on a Friday night, most owners assume the responsibility sits with the performer. In practice, it is usually the venue’s own license that covers the performance, since PROs license the establishment where the music is played, and that coverage typically extends to live performances of others’ songs alongside recorded music.
There are exceptions depending on how an event is structured, so this is not a blanket rule for every booking, but assuming “the band handles that” is often mistaken.
“One PRO License Covers All the Music I Play”
ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and GMR each represent a different catalog of songwriters and publishers, so holding a license with one does not clear a song controlled by another. A business that licenses only through ASCAP, for instance, can still be technically unlicensed for a BMI-controlled song played the same afternoon.
Full coverage generally means accounting for all four organizations, not just the most familiar name. Businesses operating in Canada face a similar setup, with SOCAN and Re:Sound covering songwriting and sound recording rights in place of the US PROs.
“I Already Have a License for My Other Location, So It Covers This One Too”
PRO licenses are typically tied to specific premises, not to a business name or brand. Owners who open a second location, or franchisees who assume a parent company’s licensing extends automatically to their unit, are a common source of gaps. Each address generally needs its own license on file, regardless of how many other locations are already covered, which is why restaurant groups scaling up often turn to a licensed music service for restaurants that manages coverage across every site from one account.
The Fix Is Simpler Than Most Owners Expect
Every myth above comes from the same root problem. An owner assumes a license they already hold, a Spotify account, a purchased album, a radio broadcast, a performer’s contract, covers a use it was never designed for. The fix is not to memorize copyright statutes or negotiate separately with four different PROs. It is to use a service built for exactly this problem.
A properly licensed background music platform bundles the public performance rights a business needs into one subscription, so the question of who is covered stops being something an owner has to track. Read more on how business music licensing works, including which rights are bundled in and how coverage applies across single locations and multi-unit groups.
You can try SoundMachine free or check the pricing to see what fits a single café or a growing group of restaurants. The myths that feel harmless today are the ones that show up in an ASCAP or BMI letter tomorrow. Getting licensed properly closes that gap for good.