Music licence for offices and workplaces: do you need one?
Music for staff counts as a public performance — even with no customers. Here’s what a workplace licence costs and how to keep it accurate.
If you play radio or music where staff can hear it — in an office, warehouse, workshop or call centre — that counts as a public performance and generally needs TheMusicLicence, even though no customers are involved. Many businesses don’t realise workplace-only music is licensable, and equally, many that are licensed are paying on out-of-date staff numbers.
What drives the cost for an office?
- The number of staff who can hear the music — the main factor for workplace tariffs.
- How music is played and across how many sites.
- Whether a first-year higher rate applies from previously unlicensed use.
What does it typically cost?
Workplace music is generally priced by headcount, so it’s often one of the cheaper settings: a small office of up to around four staff can be in the region of £169 a year across PPL and PRS (ex-VAT), scaling up with headcount. Confirm the figure against the current tariff for your staff numbers.
Where offices commonly overpay
- Staff numbers that have fallen — through downsizing, hybrid working or fewer people on-site — but were never updated.
- A first-year higher rate carried past year one.
- Multiple sites billed on assumptions rather than actual headcounts.
If your team is smaller or more hybrid than when the licence was set up, you may well be overpaying. Send us the invoice and we’ll check it for free — no savings, no fee.
- Do I need a music licence for my business? →
- How TheMusicLicence is calculated →
- How to reduce your music licence cost →
Think you're overpaying?
Send us your PPL PRS invoices and we'll review them for free. No savings, no fee.
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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.