Music licence for hotels: 2026 costs in 8 countries

A hotel needs a music licence whenever its guests hear protected music: in the lobby, the bar, at breakfast, and from the television in the bedroom. The televisions are what catch people out. For a 60-room example, our calculations on the 2026 tariffs come to £2,194.59 in the UK and €2,788.32 in Germany, and both include the bedrooms.

I would put last year’s invoice next to the floor plan before buying another music service. Mark every source of sound, televisions included. The song, the recording and the service that streams it are 3 separate permissions: Spotify’s terms rule out public commercial use even on a paid subscription, and a licence from a collecting society does not change that.

For the same hotel, the annual bill runs from CHF 929.52 in Switzerland to €6,022.23 in France. On 20 October 2026 we applied the tariffs of 8 countries to an example hotel: 4 stars, 60 bedrooms with TVs, a 40-seat bar of 100 m² and an 80-seat restaurant of 200 m², open all year, with no live acts, dancing or spa. It is our own calculation, not a customer’s invoice.

Where a tariff needed one more detail, we fixed it: a separate foyer with music of up to 100 m² in the UK, 25 m² bedrooms in Switzerland, 100 visitors a day to the music areas in Austria, and a French town of more than 50,000 people outside Paris. Each country covers different things, and the third column says which.

A UK hotel tells PPL PRS where music can be heard, how many seats there are and which bedrooms receive it. Under the PRS HR tariff in force from 1 July 2026, our restaurant pays £692.13, the bar £461.43 and the foyer £524.32. Between bedrooms and foyer you pay only the larger of the 2 (clause 4.5.4).

PPL adds £204.19 for up to 400 m² where music is audible and £78.13 for every 15 bedrooms or part of 15: £312.52 for 60 rooms. Total: £2,194.59. The pool, the gym and the spa have their own charges, so declare them if music plays there.

SIAE counts devices one by one and treats bedrooms separately. Under the 2026 tariff our 2 audio players in the public areas cost €308.30 and €277.47, because the second is 10% cheaper. The 60 TVs are worked out on a €702.20 base: 7% each for the first 10, 3% for the 11th to the 50th, 2% for the last 10. After the 19% bedroom reduction, that is €1,194.44.

Then come €254.17 of neighbouring rights for a 4-star hotel with 51 to 100 rooms, which pay the performers and the record producers. Total: €2,034.38, before association discounts. Every extra speaker adds 10% of the base, and a TV over 40 inches costs double. Switch off the lobby and keep only the bedroom TVs, and the first TV pays the full base: the subscription does not go away. For repertoires managed by others there is also Soundreef’s agreement with Federalberghi of 15 January 2026.

GEMA charges separately for the public rooms and for radio or TV passed through to the bedrooms. In the 2026 overview, on an annual contract, a room of up to 100 m² costs €295.08, one of up to 200 m² €590.04, and each bedroom €31.72. For our hotel that makes €2,788.32. Members of a partner association such as DEHOGA get 20% off, which brings it to €2,230.66.

Calling a track AI-generated does not settle the matter. Section 6 of GEMA’s 2026 M-U tariff asks anyone who says a generated track is unprotected to prove it was made with no human creative input and no part of a protected work. And GEMA presumes the music is in its repertoire until you show otherwise, so keep the track list, where each track came from and the rights you hold.

No: the hotel’s licence covers bedrooms and common areas, residents’ breakfast included, but a bar or restaurant open to the public has its own SACEM tariff. For our 4-star hotel the accommodation share is €1,299.44 to SACEM, plus 65% for SPRE, or €844.64, under the 2026 accommodation tariff.

In the town of our example the restaurant adds €1,428.46 to SACEM and €603.52 to SPRE, and the bar €1,298.60 and €547.57. Total: €6,022.23. That is the reduced rate, which applies only if you declare in advance and sign within 15 days; the general rate is 25% higher.

In Spain the hotel and the venues open to the public are licensed separately. The 2026 SGAE quote for 60 rooms, 120 beds and 4 stars is €143.61 a quarter; the bar and restaurant calculator adds €97.20 for the restaurant and €74.70 for the bar. Over a year: €1,262.04, SGAE and AGEDI-AIE included.

Switzerland counts every square metre where music or TV can be heard or seen, bedrooms included. SUISA’s Common Tariff 3a, valid until the end of 2026, charges a base of CHF 20.80 a month plus CHF 56.66 in our band: 60 bedrooms of 25 m² and 300 m² of public space, 1,800 m² in all, for CHF 929.52 a year. Audio alone comes to CHF 910.32.

In Austria the bill starts from the number of visitors, which you agree with AKM. Under group C of the AKM 2025-2026 agreement, recorded background music costs €0.0582 a visitor: at 100 a day for 365 days that is €2,124.30, plus 23% for LSG (€488.59) and AKM’s bedroom charge of €0.73 for 60 rooms for 12 months (€525.60). About €3,138.49 in all, but the agreement is revised every November, so I would use it only to ask AKM for a quote.

In the US you need to know whose songs you play and which licences your music supplier already holds. For 60 rooms, ASCAP Schedule B 2026 asks $647 and BMI 2026 $507 for recorded music, $761 with video. Our subtotal is $1,154; SESAC and GMR come on top. And don’t pay twice for cover the supplier already has.

You pay what you owed, plus a penalty that grows with time. In Italy, under the SIAE rules in force since June 2026, a first offence costs 15% plus €30 if you put it right within 5 days, 20% plus €50 between the 6th and the 10th day, and 30% plus €75 after that. Repeat offenders pay up to 200%.

In the UK PPL adds 50%, and PRS does the same for the first year. In Germany the inspection surcharge normally doubles the tariff; in Switzerland and Austria the doubling is written into the tariffs. In Spain, on top of higher management costs, there are damages under article 140 of the copyright law.

In the US it goes to court. On 5 May 2026, in BMI v LBC Restaurant Group, a Californian restaurant was ordered to pay $6,000 for each of 4 songs, $24,000 in all, plus $2,040 in lawyers’ fees and $1,073.85 in costs.

There are no royalties to pay on the tracks Lumina composes for your hotel: they are yours for good and are not registered with PPL PRS, GEMA, SUISA or any other collecting society, as the Music page says. The first tracks are free; each request composes 10 tracks for a space for 10 credits. The bedroom TVs, other recordings and events stay on the bill as before.

If you are still on a personal account, read why hotels can’t use Spotify; to choose what to play, see music for the lobby, breakfast, bar and spa. And describe on your website what the lobby and the bar are like: in our study of 3,288 answers from ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, when a traveller asks about the trip rather than the hotel, the great hotels all but disappear.

Before the speakers go on, match every space to its source and its permission. Our 4-star hotel pays £2,194.59 in the UK and €2,788.32 in Germany, but part of that is the TVs, and a new playlist does not wipe it out. Start from PRS’s room-by-room rules or GEMA’s overview and ask for a quote with your own equipment and rooms.

I would keep the invoices, the track list and the supplier’s permissions in one folder. Then I would choose the music by listening to it in the room, at the hour it will play: it has to please the guests, and the person at reception until late.