Background music for business: licence, library, B2B or AI?
A stock library's flat fee isn't a public-performance licence. Society licence, stock library, B2B playlist or AI-generated music: what each covers and costs.
Business music comes from four places: a licence from your local collection societies for ordinary music, a stock library, a B2B playlist service that bundles those licences into its price, and music generated on demand by an AI model. The main difference is who deals with public-performance fees: a B2B service includes them in its price, a stock library usually does not, and for AI-generated music it depends on your country. For country-by-country detail on the first, read how performance-rights licensing works in 2026. This article covers the buying decision: library, B2B service, or generated music.
A stock music library's flat fee is not a licence to play music to your customers. Stock libraries, also called flat-fee libraries, sell named uses for a one-off or monthly price and charge nothing per play. That says nothing about whether ASCAP, PRS, GEMA or SACEM can invoice you for playing those tracks where customers hear them. These are two different bills, and most owners first hear of the second one when the letter arrives.
What does a stock music library licence actually cover?
A stock library licence covers the uses the library names in its contract, for a flat fee and nothing per play. The contract is with whoever sells the catalogue, and there are three things it usually does not do:
- Cover public performance in a venue. Creator tiers (roughly $10–30/month) licence synchronisation, meaning music under your own video, and often exclude playback to customers on your premises. In-store use is a separate, pricier product, where it exists at all.
- Remove the collection society. If the composers are PRO members and their tracks registered, your society can still claim performance royalties on public play. Some libraries deliberately build non-registered catalogues and others don't, so ask in writing.
- Scale the way you'd assume. Most licences are per account or per site: five locations can mean five licences.
A flat fee solves the small part of the problem. The recurring cost is the licence on top: from about £400 a year in the UK, around €590 to GEMA and GVL in Germany, $800–1,600 across ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR in the US.
Who owns AI-generated music?
AI-generated music usually has no owner. Whether your venue owes a fee for playing music is a separate question.
Purely AI-generated audio generally cannot be protected by copyright, so a generated track may have no author or rights holder at all. Whether a collection society, a public-use levy or a flat music-user fee applies to AI-generated music in your venue depends on your jurisdiction, and the rules are still forming. Check your supplier's terms for who is responsible for determining and meeting those requirements.
Two limits:
- Prompting with an artist's name is different. Ask for something "exactly like" a named commercial track and the output can land close enough to support a similarity claim. Describe the sound you want, such as "warm acoustic, slow Sunday brunch", rather than asking for an imitation.
- The law is still moving. US, UK and EU courts have worked through AI-and-copyright cases since 2024, and collection societies and regulators are still deciding how generated music fits. Recheck it yearly.
Can I play AI music in my shop?
Generally yes, provided your supplier grants you, in writing, the right to play it on your commercial premises. Whether a collection-society licence or a flat music-user fee also applies is a separate, local question.
Consumer AI apps are licensed for personal listening, like Spotify: their terms usually prohibit commercial playback, and a hobbyist plan doesn't cover a 60-seat restaurant. Without a business licence naming your premises, you are back to the problem of playing a personal account in a shop.
How do a stock library, a B2B playlist service and AI-generated music compare?
The three options differ in price, catalogue, repetition and who answers when a collection society writes:
| Stock library | B2B playlist service | AI-generated music | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical cost | $10–30/mo; more for in-store rights | $30–55/mo per location | A monthly subscription; check whether it is priced per location or per account |
| PRO fees | Usually not included | Bundled into the price | Depends on your jurisdiction; yours to check |
| Catalogue | Finite; you build the playlist | Large, chart music included | Generated to your brief; some services also mix in tracks made earlier for similar briefs |
| Repetition | High | Moderate | No fixed playlist to loop; a track can come round again |
| If a society writes | Your problem | Supplier's problem | Yours, with the supplier's documentation |
Only the B2B service gives you chart music by name; its markup buys the bundled licence. A stock library looks cheapest on the invoice and is likeliest to leave you exposed.
Repetition is the line nobody quotes. An in-store playlist of 250–350 tracks is roughly seventeen hours of audio, so a café open twelve hours a day cycles the lot every day and a half, which is why the same intro plays every shift and the volume keeps creeping down. A generated stream has no fixed sequence to cycle: new tracks keep arriving for your brief, mixed with tracks made earlier for similar briefs, so a track can come round again, but there is no playlist to wear out. A different mood for each part of the day then means starting a new stream with a new description, not building another playlist. For the room itself, start with tempo and genre that match your venue.
What is a blanket music-user fee, and where does it apply?
A blanket music-user fee is a flat charge some societies levy for any audible music on commercial premises, whatever its source. It is not a per-track royalty, so the source of the music doesn't exempt you from it.
Where these apply (parts of the Nordics, some Latin American markets, and possibly the UAE from December 2026), they apply whatever you play, generated music included. No supplier can waive that fee, because it sits between your business and the local society. Budget it as a fixed line, expect a questionnaire anyway, and keep your subscription and terms to hand. Anyone promising that AI music removes your licensing obligations is overselling.
Streamood is one AI option. Its tracks are generated by AI rather than licensed from a label or artist, and no one, Streamood included, claims copyright in them (Terms §5). Whether a collection society or a flat music-user fee applies to them in your venue depends on your jurisdiction; under our Terms (§8), determining and meeting those requirements is the customer's responsibility. Plans are on the pricing page.
What should you ask a supplier before you sign?
Ask these seven questions, and expect a supplier worth using to answer all of them in writing.
- Does the licence cover public performance at my premises, or only use in my own content? Ask for the clause.
- Is any of your catalogue registered with a PRO or collection society? If so, which, where?
- What is the music? Human-made catalogue cleared with labels and publishers, generated output, or a mix?
- What happens if a society invoices me? Do you provide documentation and help me reply?
- How is it counted — per location, per stream, per account? Get the multi-site price early.
- Can I still play it if I cancel? Subscription-term and perpetual rights are very different.
- How often will the same track come back? Ask whether the stream also draws on a shared catalogue, including tracks made for other customers.
Common questions
Is music from a stock library free to play in a shop?
Free of per-play charges from the library, not necessarily of performance-rights fees. If the composers are PRO members, your society can still bill you for public performance. Ask the library, in writing, whether any of its catalogue is registered with a society.
Do I need a PRO licence for AI-generated music?
It depends on your country, and the rules are still forming: collection societies and regulators are still deciding how AI-generated music fits, and a flat music-user fee can apply whatever the source, possibly including the UAE from December 2026. Ask your local society and get your supplier's position in writing.
Can I use AI background music in ads and videos too?
Depends on the licence, not the technology: public performance and synchronisation are separate rights, and plenty of plans grant one but not the other.
A collection society has written to me. What now?
Reply, don't ignore it. Say what you play and where it comes from, and attach your subscription and terms. Ask exactly what they are claiming and on what basis. A paper trail makes this quick.
