Music licensing in South Africa
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 thatās 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 canāt 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 public performance licenses from SAMPRA and SAMRO, please visit their websites.
Start your free Soundtrack trial
Start your 14 day free trial to use our properly licensed business music service immediately. No payment or commitment required.
Music licensing in South Africa
Overview In South Africa, there are three primary music licensing organisations to consider. The first is the Southern African Music Rights Organisation, which is more commonly named SAMRO. The second is commonly known as CAPASSO, which stands for The Copyright Association of Performers, Songwriters and Composers. While there is some crossover between the two companies, SAMRO handles royalties related to public performances of music, whereas CAPASSO primarily deals with the mechnical reproduction of music. The third is SAMPRA, or the South African Music Performing Rights Association, is a non-profit organisation concerned with neighbouring rights. History In 1961, SAMRO was set up to champion music in South Africa and collect license fees from music users such as broadcasters, radio stations, clubs, restaurants and more. CAPASSO was established 24 years later, in 1985. It set out to make sure that performers, songwriters and composers were fairly paid for the use of their creations. SAMPRA is the youngest of the organisations. It exists to collect for Needletime Rights (also known as Neighbouring Rights) on behalf of artists and record labels. How to get a license in South Africa You can enquire online for the music licenses, which will require some essential information about both your business, and how you intend to use music. However, it is likely that an assessment of your business will need to be made, so it is recommended to enquire about the licenses that you need ahead of time.
Contact info
CAPASSO
RISA
SAMRO
SAMPRA