Music licence for hair and beauty salons: what you need and what to pay

Playing music in a salon, barber’s or beauty studio — radio, a playlist or streaming — is a public performance, so you need TheMusicLicence (PPL and PRS for Music combined). It applies to a single chair as much as a multi-room salon. For most salons the correct cost is on the smaller side; the problems come from misclassification and out-of-date details rather than the base rate.

What drives the cost for a salon?

• The customer-audible floor area — treatment rooms and the shop floor, not staff-only spaces.
• How you play music (background versus any live or amplified events).
• Opening hours and number of sites.
• Whether a first-year higher rate was applied and whether it has correctly dropped off.

What does it typically cost?

A single small salon playing background music usually sits toward the lower end of the tariffs — the PRS minimum is around £133.40 a year and PPL adds its own element on top, all ex-VAT. Larger salons and multi-site groups scale from there. Use the calculator for an indication, then confirm against your invoice.

Where salons commonly overpay

• Back rooms, staff areas or storage counted as customer-audible space.
• A carried-forward first-year higher rate.
• The same error repeated across several branches — small per-site, large in total.
• No re-assessment after a refit, downsizing or change in how music is used.

Send us your invoice and we’ll check it line by line against the published tariffs for free. If it’s correct, we’ll say so — no savings, no fee.

• How audible area affects your music licence →
• 5 ways businesses overpay →
• How much does a business music licence cost? →

This guide is general information, not legal advice, and MLC is an independent consultancy — not affiliated with PPL PRS Ltd, PRS for Music or PPL.