For pubs the bill is built from more parts than most owners realise, and only one of those parts, the background music itself, depends on whose music you choose. Here is the whole picture, honestly told, with the sources linked so you can check it yourself.
If your pub or wine bar plays commercial music to customers - radio, streaming, CDs, a jukebox, or a typical "royalty-free" playlist - that's a public performance under UK law, and it normally requires TheMusicLicence from PPL PRS. On top of that, and this is the part pubs especially need to know: TVs with the sound up, live music, karaoke and jukeboxes each have their own licensing requirements, separate from your background playlist.
Background music is the one part of the picture where your choice of supplier changes whether the music sits inside the PPL PRS repertoire at all. Everything else stays exactly where it is.
TheMusicLicence isn't one flat fee - it's assembled from how your venue uses music. For a pub, the common building blocks are:
Each layer stacks. A music-light local pays in the same few-hundred-a-year territory as a café; a sports pub with a jukebox and a Friday covers band can pay well over a thousand. PPL PRS publish the full tariff tables and revise them each April - check your venue's numbers at pplprs.co.uk.
The honest conclusion from that table: how much of your music picture your supplier choice touches depends on what kind of venue you run.
Worth repeating because it catches so many venues: royalty-free means you paid a one-off fee to the library that sold you the track. It does not mean the composer is unregistered with PRS, and most royalty-free libraries use professional composers who are PRS members. So the "royalty-free playlist" behind your bar usually sits within the PPL PRS repertoire after all. Royalty-free rarely means PRS-free, and it is worth asking your supplier directly. We explain the mechanism in detail in our café licensing guide and on Music licensing.
TheMusicLicence covers music whose writers and performers are members of PRS or PPL. Music with no such members behind it sits outside that repertoire.
Original, AI-generated music supplied under a commercial licence is one way that happens. PRS for Music's published policy states that works "with no human author or with insufficient human contribution" cannot be registered with PRS. What that means for your own venue depends on everything else you play, which is why PPL PRS are the ones to confirm it rather than a music supplier.
This is how SoundPour is built, and evening rooms are somewhere we have put real effort. Alongside the daytime collections there is an evening range made for exactly these venues: slow-burn R&B for cocktail hour, UK garage for the weekend lift, melodic techno for the late lounge, with The Curated Evening scheduling the night the way The Curated Day handles the daytime. Every track is original, curated by hand in Darlington, registered with no collecting society anywhere, and supplied with a written Declaration of Provenance you can show to PPL PRS.
Commercial music played to customers is a public performance and TheMusicLicence normally applies, with TVs, jukeboxes, karaoke and live music treated as separate uses on top. Background music whose writers and performers are not registered with PPL or PRS sits outside the repertoire. Which of those describes your venue is a question for you and PPL PRS.
More variable than for any other venue type: a few hundred pounds a year for a music-light local, well over a thousand for a music-led venue with TVs, a jukebox and live events. The fee is assembled from each way you use music - PPL PRS publish the tariffs at pplprs.co.uk.
No. Those are treated as separate uses and stay within the PPL PRS repertoire no matter what your background playlist is. Changing your background music affects that one part of the picture only. For wine bars and music-light pubs that part may be most of it; for sports and live-music pubs it is one of several. PPL PRS can tell you how your own account is made up.
TheMusicLicence covers the PPL PRS repertoire, and music with no PRS or PPL members behind it sits outside it. Most wine bars have no TVs, jukeboxes or live acts, so their music picture is usually simpler than a pub's. Whether that changes your own position is for you and PPL PRS to establish, and we will supply documentation about the music for that conversation.
The position above reflects the published guidance of UK government, PRS for Music and PPL. The original sources are linked here so you can read them yourself or share them with a solicitor.
Related guide: Do you need a licence to play music in a café?
This guide is general information about UK music licensing, not legal advice, and it does not determine what your venue is required to license. SoundPour is not a law firm. The description reflects the current published positions of UK government, PRS for Music and PPL. Confirm your own position with PPL PRS, and with your solicitor if you want to be thorough, before making any change to your licensing arrangements. Last reviewed 8 August 2026.
SoundPour is original background music for bars and late rooms, from first pour to last orders, supplied with a written Declaration of Provenance covering your catalogue. Drop us your business name and email and we'll come back to you within 24 hours - Documentation Pack included so you can show it to PPL PRS, your accountant or your solicitor first.
Start your free betaor email us directly: hello@soundpour.co.uk