License Calculator
How much will your store pay the four US music PROs this year?
A free estimator across ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and GMR — sourced from published 2026 rate cards. No email, no signup.
Every business that plays recorded music in a customer-facing space owes blanket licensing fees to four separate performance rights organizations. ASCAP and BMI publish their rate cards. SESAC and GMR don't — they negotiate individually, which is why most operators don't discover them until a notice arrives. The four bills together usually run more than business owners expect.
Enforcement has stepped up across all four PROs in the past three years, with infringement suits filed against single-location operators in retail, hospitality, and fitness. This calculator gives you a defensible band for budgeting — not a quote — using the published rate-card structure for ASCAP and BMI and observed SMB ranges for SESAC and GMR. As of 2026-05-09.
Your estimate
As of 2026-05-09 · per location
Estimated annual cost to license all four US PROs directly
| PRO | Annual range | Source |
|---|
Recording-side rights are separate.
The four PROs license composition rights — the rights of songwriters and publishers. Playing recorded music in a public space also touches sound recording rights, which belong to the labels and performers. For most small businesses these are bundled into a licensed B2B service, but if you stream personal accounts or play owned files you are not covered for either layer.
Mechanical rights (used when you reproduce a recording) typically don’t apply to in-store playback, but they do apply if you put music in a video, app, or hold-on-the-line system.
Bundled commercial services:
Services like Mood Media, Soundtrack Your Brand, SiriusXM for Business, and Cloud Cover negotiate blanket deals with all four PROs and the recording-side rights holders, then resell access at a flat per-location rate. Typical SMB pricing is $25–$60 per location per month. This compresses the four-PRO bill into a single subscription — but the catalog is shared with millions of other businesses, the music isn’t tuned to your customer, and you’re still paying every month indefinitely.
Compare: Mood Media alternative · Soundtrack Your Brand alternative · Pandora for Business alternative
$0 indefinitely on Entuned Free — PRO-indemnified.
Entuned commissions and owns its catalog outright, so every track is cleared for commercial use the moment it plays — no PRO blanket licenses, no negotiations, no enforcement risk. Free indefinitely on the entry tier; per-location pricing on Core and Pro.
Entuned engineers original music for your store at the parameter level — tempo, key, lyrical density, energy arc — tailored to your customer and tied to your sales outcomes. Entuned Free — no credit card, no time limit. PRO-indemnified the moment it plays.
Informational only — actual rates vary by negotiation, business specifics, and PRO discretion. Verify with each PRO directly before budgeting. Not legal advice.
Methodology
How this calculator works
The calculator returns a low-mid-high band, not a quote. ASCAP and BMI publish rate cards that scale by industry, square footage, occupancy, and live-music status. SESAC and GMR don’t publish rates — they negotiate per business, so we use observed SMB ranges from public reporting, attorney commentary, and our own conversations with small-business owners who’ve received notices. Every band on this page is dated as of 2026-05-09.
ASCAP
General-business retail starts at roughly $1/day — $365–$402/yr for the smallest stores — and scales by square footage, occupancy, live music yes/no, and admission-fee yes/no. Restaurants and bars start around $730/yr for the smallest establishments. Fitness has a dedicated rate card because music is “central to the service.”
- Source: ASCAP licensing overview
- Source: ASCAP retail stores rate sheet (PDF)
- Source: ASCAP fitness landing page
BMI
Single-location retail under 2,000 sq ft has a published minimum around $294/yr. Multi-location retail scales up to roughly $2,500/yr. Bars and restaurants run $378–$11,286/yr depending on size, music type, and frequency.
- Source: BMI licensing overview
- Source: BMI bars & restaurants rates
SESAC
SESAC does not publish rates. They negotiate directly. Most retail SMBs we’ve seen land in the $200–$800/yr range — smaller catalog than ASCAP/BMI, but a handful of high-value artists make a license meaningful.
- Source: SESAC about music licensing
GMR (Global Music Rights)
GMR also does not publish rates. Smaller catalog than the other three, but it includes very high-value artists (Drake, The Eagles, Bruno Mars, John Lennon’s catalog). Most retail SMBs land $200–$800/yr.
- Source: Global Music Rights
The bands the calculator returns
For a small retail store (under 2,000 sq ft, fewer than 50 occupants, no live music), the four-PRO total typically lands $1,059–$1,496/yr. A mid-size retail store (2,000–10,000 sq ft) jumps to $1,402–$3,600. A small restaurant under 50 occupancy: $1,708–$3,900. A larger restaurant with regular live music can clear $8,000+ once you stack ASCAP + BMI live-music surcharges. Salon, gym, office, and hotel bands are derived from the same rate-card structure with category-specific multipliers.
The calculator gives you a band, not a quote. Actual numbers vary significantly within each band based on negotiation, exact square footage, music duration, and PRO discretion.
- Retail music licensing FAQ — the full rules in plain English
- Music license exemption checker — do you qualify for the small-business exemption?
- Spotify Business risk check — what your personal Spotify account doesn’t cover
- Entuned pricing — including the always-free tier
- Start Free — PRO-indemnified the moment it plays
Skip the four bills
Hear it on your floor.
Entuned engineers original music for your store at the parameter level — tempo, key, lyrical density, energy arc — tailored to your customer and tied to your sales outcomes. Entuned Free — no credit card, no time limit. PRO-indemnified the moment it plays.
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