Filling your business with on-brand sound helps amplify your brand and drives strong emotional connections to your business. Want to blast pop hits? You got it. Acoustic instrumental more your brand’s tempo? Done. Sonos Pro includes access to ad-free commercially licensed music for every type of business.

The Beginner’s Guide to Commercially Licensed Music

When managing your business, every element plays an important role in shaping the customer experience. One often overlooked but impactful aspect is the ability for music to influence your customer’s purchasing behaviors. However, while it may be tempting to play a popular tune from your personal playlist, streaming  music in a commercial space is not the same as enjoying music at home or on the go.

A subscription to a consumer music service such as Apple Music or Spotify provides a license to stream music for personal use, but does not provide a license to stream music for commercial use.  This means that the service cannot be used on a sales floor or restaurant dining room while the business is open. You’ll need to check  the terms of your consumer music service before playing any popular hits in your business.

When music is legally licensed, it means that the rights to use and distribute the musical work have been granted by the appropriate copyright owners or rights holders. Licensing is a crucial part of the music industry, ensuring that artists, songwriters, and creators are compensated for their work and that users have the legal right to use the music in specific ways.

For the case of restaurants, cafes, and retail stores, the law considers your brick-and-mortar business to be a public space, and music played in that space requires a specific license for commercial use. These licenses come in different types, each giving specific rights and limitations on how music can be used. One license that is required for commercial spaces is a public performance license, which is handled by Performance Rights Organizations (PROs), such as ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC (among others) in the United States.

Choosing the right commercial music service for your business

Failing to secure the proper rights can lead to legal consequences and financial liabilities for your business, so it’s crucial to navigate the world of music licensing appropriately.

Sonos Pro is made just for businesses, streamlining your usage to support only commercially licensed music services. Sonos Pro comes with Sonos Backgrounds, a selection of stations curated for your business. Sonos Backgrounds includes the commercial licensing you need for your retail, restaurant or business space, including licenses with all major PROs in the United States.

Sonos Pro also supports multiple third-party commercial music services, like Soundtrack Your Brand or Cloud Cover, enabling multiple options to provide your business with all the legal music it needs to make the perfect sound experience for your customers.

Amplify your brand with Sonos Pro

With Sonos Pro, you have the power to customize and control the music in each of your locations from a centralized platform — bringing you the hardware, commercially licensed music, and system control you need to create amazing sound experiences.

As the pioneer of multiroom audio, Sonos provides top-tier hardware and sound experiences that elevate any space. Our speakers are simple to set up and operate, so you don’t need a high degree of technical expertise to use them.

With the Sonos Pro dashboard, you can schedule when and where music plays, and adjust the volume to suit the time of day or atmosphere. These remote monitoring and management capabilities allow you to maintain consistency across all your locations, regardless of where you are.

What’s more, Sonos Pro offers excellent customer support, helping you quickly resolve any issues and minimize downtime. You’ll also have access to a customer success manager to make sure the system meets your exact needs.

With one easy subscription, your business has access to everything it needs to sound great: high-quality audio, commercially-licensed music, and a comprehensive dashboard to keep the sound of your business consistent across all your locations. Find the plan that’s right for you or get in touch to learn more.

*Sonos Pro is only available in certain territories.