Exemption Checker

Does your store, bar, or restaurant qualify for the federal music license exemption?

Five questions, sixty seconds. The tool walks the homestyle exemption (17 USC § 110(5)(B)) against your real numbers and tells you where your licensing exposure actually sits.

Federal copyright law carves out a narrow small-business exemption for public performance of music. It saves qualifying operators from PRO licensing fees — but the rules are precise about square footage, equipment, and what kind of music source counts. ASCAP filed thirteen infringement suits against small operators in March 2024 and another twenty-four in February 2025; most of the defendants believed they were covered when they weren't.

Question 1 of 5

What kind of establishment is this?

The square-footage threshold is different for food service vs. retail/services.

Question 2 of 5

What is the gross square footage of the establishment?

Exclude parking. The statute uses gross interior square footage of the establishment itself.

Question 3 of 5

Where is the music coming from?

This is the question that disqualifies most operators. The exemption only covers retransmission of broadcast radio or TV.

Question 4 of 5

How many audio loudspeakers, total, across the establishment?

You're over the auto-exempt square-footage threshold, so the equipment limits start to matter. The cap is six total speakers.

Question 5 of 5

In any single room or adjoining outdoor space, how many speakers are there?

You're over six speakers total, so the per-room cap applies. The statute limits any one room to four.

Your result

Statute: 17 U.S.C. § 110(5)(B) — the small-business "homestyle" exemption to public performance rights. Read the statute at Cornell Legal Information Institute.

Informational only. Not legal advice. The homestyle exemption is fact-specific — verify your situation with a qualified IP attorney before relying on it.

Even if you're exempt, the exemption only covers broadcast radio. Entuned Free gives you outcome-tuned music with no PRO obligation, indefinitely — original compositions engineered for your customer, not licensed catalog tracks.

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What the exemption actually is

The narrowest carve-out in copyright law — and the one most operators misread.

Section 110(5)(B) of the Copyright Act exempts small food-service or drinking establishments under 3,750 gross square feet, and other small establishments under 2,000 gross square feet, from paying public-performance royalties on retransmissions of broadcast radio and television. Above those thresholds, the exemption still applies if the equipment stays within strict limits: six audio speakers maximum, four per room, and audiovisual displays under fifty-five inches diagonal.

The trap is the word "broadcast." If you stream Spotify or Pandora over the speakers, plug in your phone, or play CDs, the homestyle exemption does not cover you — regardless of your square footage. You owe ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and GMR public-performance fees, or you need a licensed B2B service that handles the licensing for you, or you need original music that doesn't carry PRO obligations at all. Most of the small-business infringement suits filed each year are against operators who didn't know their music source disqualified them.

Background reading on what your exposure actually looks like: music licensing for business walks through the licensing landscape end-to-end, and the retail music FAQ covers the most common questions operators bring us. If you'd rather skip the licensing question entirely, see our pricing tiers, including Entuned Free.

Next step

Skip the licensing question entirely.

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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