What Restaurant Operators Need to Know About Music Licensing

4 Min Read By MRM Staff

Music can play a role to enhance the dining experience, setting the mood and complementing the menu and design. It's important for operators to ensure they are abiding by the law and compensating the creators and rights holders. Performing Rights Organizations (PROs) such as ASCAP and BMI represent songwriters and publishers and grant licenses to play copyrighted music. 

To learn more about music licensing, misconceptions, playlist trends, and more Modern Restaurant Management (MRM) magazine reached out to Ola Sars, CEO of Soundtrack, a streaming service that brings music to businesses of all kinds, including restaurants.

What should restaurant operators know about music licensing?  Truth be told, music licensing can be complicated. We recently surveyed 150 business leaders in retail, hospitality and restaurant and found that only half had some familiarity with music licensing.  We find that many restaurateurs don’t know that paying for only one PRO or using a consumer…