Guide

Can I play Spotify in my business?

Short answer: Spotify's own terms grant personal, non-commercial use, and its support page says you can't play Spotify publicly from a business such as a bar, restaurant or store. YouTube and Apple Music have similar personal-use terms. For music in a venue, businesses use a service built for business playback.

This page summarises what each service publishes in its own terms. It is not legal advice. Terms can differ by country, so check the version for your country.

What Spotify's terms say

Spotify's Terms of Use grant users "limited, non-exclusive, revocable permission to make personal, non-commercial use of the Spotify Service and the Content" (Spotify Terms of Use, section 3).

Spotify's support page on this topic is more direct. It says Spotify "is only for personal, non-commercial use" and that this means "you can't broadcast or play Spotify publicly from a business, such as bars, restaurants, schools, stores, salons, dance studios, radio stations, etc." (Spotify Support: Spotify for public or commercial use).

For playing music in a commercial environment, that page points businesses to a separate business music service (Soundtrack).

Does Spotify Premium change this?

Not according to the published terms. The personal, non-commercial permission in Spotify's Terms of Use applies to the Spotify Service as a whole, and the support page doesn't make an exception for paid plans: it describes Spotify overall as being for personal, non-commercial use.

Restaurants, cafés and shops

The support page names the kinds of places owners most often ask about. Spotify lists bars, restaurants, schools, stores and salons as examples of businesses where you can't play Spotify publicly.

• Restaurants and bars: named directly on Spotify's support page.
• Shops and retail: "stores" is named directly.
• Cafés: not named word for word. The page's list ends with "etc.", so it gives examples rather than a complete list.
• Salons and studios: "salons" and "dance studios" are named directly.

What about YouTube and YouTube Music?

YouTube's Terms of Service say you may view or listen to content "for your personal, non-commercial use". Among the things you may not do, they list using the service "to view or listen to Content other than for personal, non-commercial use (for example, you may not publicly screen videos or stream music from the Service)" (YouTube Terms of Service).

Paid YouTube services, which include YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium, follow the same line. The Paid Service Terms say that after paying, "you may access and use that Paid Service, for your personal, non-commercial use only" (YouTube Paid Service Terms).

So "is YouTube Music legal for business?" has the same answer under YouTube's own terms as Spotify: the consumer plans are for personal use.

What about Apple Music?

Apple's Media Services Terms and Conditions, which cover Apple Music, set out "Usage Rules". The first one reads: "You may use the Services and Content only for personal, noncommercial purposes" (with exceptions Apple specifies elsewhere). The next one adds that Apple's delivery of content "does not transfer any commercial or promotional use rights to you" (Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions, section F).

Why this matters for a venue

Owners usually reach for a personal app because it's already on their phone and it's cheap. But a consumer plan is built for one listener, while a venue needs something different:

• Terms that match the use. A personal plan's terms are written for personal listening, and a business service's terms are written for playback in a business.
• Control without staff. In a venue, music should keep to a plan through the day, not depend on whoever's phone is connected.
• Consistency across rooms and sites. Different zones, opening hours and locations need a schedule, not a personal queue.
• A record for each location. Some business services provide a document per location. FreqVault, for example, gives each location a certificate PDF.

Business music options

Several services are built for playback in a business. Spotify's own support page refers businesses to one of them. They differ in catalogue, features, hardware and price, and we compare them side by side, with sources, in Spotify for business alternatives.

Where FreqVault fits

FreqVault is a B2B venue music subscription: €25 per location per month, for business playback at registered locations, per the FreqVault Terms.

In practice that means:

• Curated experiences for the room, scheduled by day-part, so the music changes through the day without anyone touching the speakers.
• Zones per room, each with its own experience and schedule, all in one dashboard.
• A browser player on the device already connected to your speakers. No player hardware is needed. It streams in real time, so you need a stable internet connection.
• A certificate PDF for each location, from the dashboard, with a public verification page. It applies to music played through the FreqVault player only. Music from another source, such as a personal streaming account or radio, is outside it.

The plan is €25 per location per month or €275 per location per year, and prices exclude applicable VAT. Each location starts with a 7-day free trial, no credit card needed at sign-up, for business playback at that location; it becomes paid only if you add a payment method and confirm. Monthly or yearly; cancel any time, effective at the end of the paid period.

See how it works for restaurants and hotels, or hear the demo. Start 7-day free trial.

Music that's set up for your venue

Start with one location. A 7-day free trial to hear FreqVault in your room, no credit card needed at sign-up. Then €25 per location per month or €275 per location per year.