The problem
Music at work is not the same as music at home
Playing music on business premises is a public performance, and that is not the same as listening privately.
Private radio, a streaming subscription, your own playlist: all of that is licensed for private use. In a sauna, hotel, practice or shop the same music plays under different conditions, because there it is performed publicly.
That creates obligations towards collecting societies: register, pay annually, report changes. It applies whether or not the business regards the music as a side issue.
What it means day to day
The annoying part is not the invoice, it is the uncertainty
The running costs are one thing; the uncertainty about whether everything is set up lawfully is the other.
Who reports the floor area? What happens after a refit? Does the registration still hold if a quiet room is added or an area is used differently? And what exactly happens if someone checks? These are not questions you answer on the side.
For a business that simply wants a pleasant atmosphere, the subject runs quietly in the background without ever being settled.
The way out
Music that never enters this system in the first place
If the music used is not in the repertoire of a collecting society, the obligation to report it does not arise for that music.
Every production here is created independently. None of it is registered with a collecting society, because the author is not a member and does not intend to become one.
For the business that means no registration is needed for this music, no reporting obligation arises, and no annual licence fees are due for it.
Why not a subscription catalogue
A catalogue for everyone fits nobody properly
A standard subscription solves the rights question and creates three new problems: a payment without end, tracks that disappear again, and a catalogue built for everyone.
First, the payment runs as long as the business runs, month after month and without end. Second, tracks vanish from catalogues when licences expire, and the mood in the room changes without anyone having done anything.
Third, a catalogue meant to work for dental practices, boutiques and gyms at the same time is not really made for any of them.
What else is possible
Your own catalogue instead of someone else’s playlist
A selection can grow into a catalogue of your own, with tracks that exist nowhere else.
If you want, pieces are written specifically for the business: a signature track for reception, your own sauna infusion music, a series that belongs to the brand rather than to a catalogue. Productions like that stay recognisable, because they play nowhere else.
And it grows. Over time a single piece becomes a body of work that belongs to the house, the way colours, scent and furnishings do.
Who is behind it
One person to talk to instead of a form
The person who produces the music is the one who calls you back.
There is no ticket system and no hold queue. Changes, new areas, an extra mood for the winter season: those get discussed, not filed.
For the business that means short paths. Whoever knows the room makes the music for it, and whoever made the music knows the room.
How it works here
Made for the setting, bought once
Music is made for a specific room and a specific effect, and the scope of use is agreed individually beforehand.
The playlists are organised by use: quiet room, sauna infusion, reception, lounge or treatment. Pay once, use for life: what you buy stays usable, because there is no subscription and no contract that comes back every month.
The scope of use is agreed explicitly rather than derived from a general licence. And if none of it fits, a production is made for the business alone.
Next step
Listen first, then decide.
Every playlist comes with two samples. The prices are one-off guide figures, and whatever suits gets discussed.
This text describes the general background and does not replace legal advice in an individual case.
