Music Licensing for Business in Italy

Playing music in a business is a little different from listening to music at home. Since you're playing for an audience with a business and commercial purpose, you will need different licenses from SIAE and Nuovo Imaie.

Charming Restaurant in Rome with Outdoor Seating

Music Licenses in Italy

Businesses need three different rights to legally play music in their physical venue.

  • record icon

    Recording Rights

    Recording Rights

    This covers the right to use a specific recording of a song.

  • Music Notes

    Publishing Rights

    Publishing Rights

    This covers the right to use the original composition.

  • Open store

    Public Performance Rights

    Public Performance Rights

    This allows you to play the song in a public environment.

In Italy, public performance licenses are obtained through companies such as SIAE and Nuovo Imaie. It is vital that you obtain the correct rights to use music in your business.

For information on music licensing in another country, please click here.

Soundtrack Your Brand

The Value of Soundtrack

Apart from our great features for businesses, such as schedules and explicit filters, We offer a licensed music service for commercial use, with great features such as scheduling tools and an explicit filter.

Soundtrack Your Brand is able to provide this via direct relationships with publishers, performing rights organizations and record labels (including Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and more).

Our technology allows royalties to be fairly and accurately distributed back to music creators. Our Unlimited tier provides royalty payments that are approximately 5 times higher than those from streaming services for private use.

Playing Music at home

Unsupported Services

Services such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Tidal and Deezer are not suitable for use in business. These platforms are for personal, private use only - it is not legal to use them when playing music to an audience and you could risk being faced with a fine.

"You can’t broadcast or play Spotify publicly from a business, such as bars, restaurants, schools, stores, salons, dance studios, radio stations, etc. To play in a commercial environment, check out our friends at Soundtrack Your Brand."

Spotify Support Page

Steps to become fully licensed in Italy

1) Trial Soundtrack

Start our 14 day free trial to use our properly licensed business music service immediately. No payment or commitment required.

2) Get a Public Performance License

If you don't have license from SIAE and Nuovo Imaie, please visit their websites to get your licenses.

3) Subscribe to Soundtrack

Select a plan and add your payment details to officially join Soundtrack.

More Information about Music Licensing in Italy

Overview

Three key organizations exist in Italy that govern the music licensing space, collecting and distributing funds on behalf of music creators. SIAE is responsible for collecting royalties for musical compositions, while SCF is responsible for collecting royalties for recorded music. SIAE uses a subscription-based model to collect fees, whereas SCF uses a usage based system. Nuovo Imaie handles fees and payments for neighbouring rights.


Contact

SIAE

SCF

Nuovo Imaie

History

Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori, or the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers is often abbreviated as SIAE. It has an interesting history as it was created by the Italian government back in 1882.

SCF, Società Connessioni Fonografiche or Italian Society of Phonographic Connections was introduced much later, in 1988 because of a growing need for music licensing in Italy. It is a member of the Federación Internacional de la Industria Fonográfica (IFPI), which is the international organization that represents the interests of the recorded music industry.

Nuovo Istituto Mutualistico Artisti Interpreti Esecutori or the New Mutualistic Institute for Artists, Interpreters, Performers was created in 2010 and is most commonly known as Nuovo Imaie. It was founded by artists who set out to protect and collect for their neighbouring rights.

How to get a license in Italy

For a company playing music in Italy, it is possible that SIAE, SCF and Nuovo Image licenses will be needed. It it recommended to contact each organization for confirmation. Tariffs will depend on certain factors such as the physical size of the space and how many people are likely to be present when music is played.