How to find cheaper or free background music licenses
Paying high annual fees for commercial music licenses makes it difficult for small shop and cafe owners to legally play background tracks without straining their budgets. This high cost forces businesses to look for cheaper options, free alternatives, or clear guidance on how to use real music from actual artists for brand promotion.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Looking for royalty-free subscription services like Tonada
- 2obtain the artist's permission and pay the royalties
- 3use royalty free music
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Opening an independent cafe soon and trying to sort out background music. I saw that I need to pay for the music licence in the UK (around £400 per year) Do any of you have any cheaper or even free options?”source ↗
“hey so i wana know about what goes into using real music from actual artists to promote my clothing brand.”source ↗
Where this came up
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