Music licensing in Germany
Streaming music in your business isn't the same as listening to music at home. When you play music for an audience with a business and commercial purpose, you need different licenses.
Play it right
Soundtrack is built to bring you music that’s legal for your business. In most cases, everything you need is included in your plan. If you charge admission fees, play live music or timing music to exercise classes you may need additional permissions.
Recording rights
Allows you to stream a specific sound recording of a song
Publishing rights
Allows you to stream the original composition
Change the way you play
Soundtrack offers an excellent selection of music because of our direct relationships with publishers, performing rights organizations and record labels. These include Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and more. Our technology accurately tracks your song plays, which ensures that music creators get the right payments from us. Soundtrack Unlimited makes royalty payments about 5 times higher than streaming services for private use.
Music for business
Avoid legal concerns when playing music in your business. Use a suitable music provider (like Soundtrack) and check that you have the correct licenses in place.
Personal music services including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Tidal and Deezer, are not approved for use in business environments.
Spotify
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.
Spotify for public or commercial useYouTube
You may access and use the Service as made available to you, as long as you comply with this Agreement and the law. You may view or listen to Content for your personal, non-commercial use.
YouTube Terms of ServiceDeezer
The use of the Site and Application is only authorized for a personal and private use, therefore any other use, notably in public premises and businesses, is strictly forbidden.
Terms of Use for the Deezer Free ServiceApple
You may use the Services and Content only for personal, noncommercial purposes (except as set forth in the App Store Content section below or as otherwise specified by Apple).
Apple Media Services Terms and ConditionsAmazon Music
You may use the Services only for your personal, non-commercial purposes.
Amazon Music Terms of UseGet licensed
Get your correct business licenses
If you don't have a public performance license from GEMA, please visit their website.
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Music licensing in Germany
Music is one of the best tools for driving customer engagement, but it's not as simple as just pressing play. In Germany, businesses that want to play music on-site need licensing in place before they turn the music on. Music licenses for German businesses are available from GEMA. Germany is home to only one performing rights organization: GEMA (Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte). GEMA was established in 1933 and protects performance rights on behalf of composers, lyricists and publishers in Germany. They also distribute royalties from music licensing to their members in Germany. Germany's other main copyright collection society is GVL (Gesellschaft zur Verwertung von Leistungsschutzrechten). Founded in 1959, GVL protects the neighboring rights of performers and producers. GVL collaborates with GEMA where neighboring rights and public performance overlap, but GEMA collects the royalties on their behalf. Any business in Germany looking to sort out their music licensing needs can do so easily on GEMA's website. All you need to do is fill out a brief form about the type of business you operate and some details about what your business offers. After filling in the form, you'll see a summary of the license you need and what it costs. GEMA offers monthly, quarterly and annual payment plans.
Contact info
GEMA
GVL