Proper Remuneration for Rights Holders

Based on a 2022 MRC Nielsen study, the music industry loses $1.38 billion each year from businesses that incorrectly play music. 78% of small to midsize businesses across the United States, are misusing personal streaming platforms - as a source of their in-store overhead music. Even though it’s clear in the consumer DSP’s Terms of Service, that they are only licenced for personal, non-commercial use, it’s largely disregarded across consumer DSP’s and Youtube.

In 2013, Spotify for Business, now named Soundtrack Your Brand, was launched. By creating a high quality, on-demand music streaming platform with a music catalog that is licensed music for business and commercial use, we ensure that record companies are properly paid. We are proud to have over 8,000 licensing agreements with labels, publishers and performing rights organizations, so that everyone involved in music creation is properly remunerated.

The technology and tracking behind Soundtrack ensures that music labels and music publishers will be compensated correctly. Plus, your artists will be pleased to learn that for every song that is played using the Unlimited plan, artists can earn up to five times more from Soundtrack Your Brand than with personal streaming services.

Music Licensing for Business Use

Businesses that use personal streaming platforms are not only in breach of copyright laws, but also the terms of the music service that they’re using. In order for rights holders such as record labels to be properly compensated for the recorded music that they own, the correct licensing agreements must be in place. 

Oftentimes, music curators and even some commercial music for business providers only secure PRO’s licenses, whereby label licenses and revenue are completely disregarded. There are three main licenses that are typically required. 1) The Recording License, to cover the right to use a specific recording of a song, 2) The Publishing License, to cover the right to use the original composition, and 3) The Public Performance License to grant performance rights and allow a business to play a track in a public environment. 

While it’s essential for all businesses to have the correct licenses from the performing rights organizations that operate in each country, it does not negate the proper licenses for sound recording rights and sometimes reproduction rights when they are storing and caching music in the event wifi or internet connections fail. Read more about our global music licensing here.

Music Discovery

In the United States, 33% of listeners discover new music from background music that’s playing in businesses. With just one visit to a hotel, restaurant, bar or retail store, someone new could join the fanbase of one of your artists. 

Personal music streaming platforms such as Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, Soundcloud, YouTube Music and Amazon Music are only built for personal use. This means that the many businesses who rely on these types of services to play music in their business are breaking the law every single day. The same issue applies with downloaded digital music, for example if iTunes is used. 

The expectation of most customers, staff members and business owners is that a large selection of popular music will be available at all times, with no restrictions or advertising. The customer experience often relies on the availability of this type of music, meaning that royalty-free options are often not suitable. Business  owners and managers often incorrectly turn to personal streaming service providers for this reason.  

Though music licensing can often be complicated for many business owners, so many business owners are causing harm to the music industry by failing to be compliant. Though the music in your catalog might be receiving exposure in some scenarios, you would not be paid fairly for the usage if personal platforms are being used to entertain hundreds of consumers each week. Soundtrack offers an ideal solution for this issue with our Unlimited plan.

Soundtrack & Record Label Collaborations

The music you release is well taken care of at Soundtrack. Our direct licensing  relationships with labels including Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group, as well as Merlin and a wide array of  indie labels. These important partnerships allow us to have a licensed music catalog that we’re incredibly proud of. 

We maintain a music service with the world’s largest commercial music catalog of business music with over 120 million songs across a broad range of genres, from some of the world’s most loved artists. 

To make best use of this inclusive music library, we have an expert in-house curation team who create and maintain over 1,500 different playlists. These reside on our business platform amongst other essential features such as a scheduling feature, centralized multi-location controls, and an explicit lyric filter. 

We have also built an authorized Spotify playlist import feature, so that our users can add their favorite existing playlists to their Soundtrack account - ensuring that the reach of your priority playlists can be maximized and played legally for commercial use. 

Each of your fully licensed artists can be found through our search feature, with each artist having their own Soundtrack page. That page highlights popular songs, featured playlists, ‘Best Of’ playlists as well as ‘& More’ playlists to blend with similar artists.