Public Performance Licensing refers to the legal obligations that businesses have to obtain permission to play music in a commercial environment. This is different from when you listen to music in a private environment i.e. at home or in the car.

APRA and PPCA requires each venue to have its own public performance licences as every venue uses music and music videos differently, thus  attracting different licence fees. Nightlife covers the licences needed to supply the music, known as Mechanical Copyright Licences, but each venue is responsible for its own public performance licences.

Ownership of music can get very complicated. There’s the composer, the writer, the artist, the performer plus the record company, music publisers etc. It would be nearly impossible to seek the permission of every owner/stakeholder within every piece of music used in your business.

Performing Rights Organisations make this easier by offering licenses for all the music in their repertoire and any music that is owned by similiar organisations, globally.

These are called blanket licenses. In return for these blanket licenses, Performing Rights Organisations charge a licensing fee based on the way their music is being used. This is then distributed back to their members as royalties. APRA/AMCOS is the Performing Rights organisation in Australia that collects and distributes royalties on behalf of the music publishing community i.e. songwriters, composers and music publishers. PPCA is the Performing Rights organisation in Australia that collects and distributes royalties on behalf of the owner of sound recordings i.e. record companies and sound recording artists.

The easiest way to see this is that APRA/AMCOS members write the music and PPCA members record it. Sometimes the same person or group will write and record a song and they will get royalties from both organisations.

There are three main considerations when using music in a business:

• Music you intend to play must be licensed for commercial use – which is what Nightlife supplies (CDs, MP3s, consumer streaming services are for private use only);
• A licence to publicly perform any published music – or an APRA License is required
• A licence to publicly perform any sound recordings – or a PPCA License is required

It can get a little confusing but don’t worry, we have a team of licensing experts, who can help you understand exactly what your business needs.