Short answer: playing recorded music publicly in a business is normally a “public performance,” and that usually requires a licence. It's also why streaming your personal Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube over the shop speakers isn't permitted — those consumer plans are for personal use only, and that's a separate issue from performance rights.
FrontDoorRadio takes a different route: instead of clearing popular music for you, it's built so there's nothing to clear in the first place.
Almost every confused answer online mixes these up. They're separate, and you can be on the wrong side of one without the other.
PROBLEM ONE
Songwriters and publishers are owed a fee when their work is performed in public. Businesses normally cover this by licensing through performing-rights organisations — in the US that's ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR, each licensed separately. Other countries have their own.
PROBLEM TWO
Separately, consumer streaming plans restrict use to personal and non-commercial. Playing a personal account in a business breaks that agreement on its own — even if you happen to hold performance licences.
This is why “but I pay for Spotify Premium” doesn't help. You're paying for a personal listening licence, and a shop full of customers isn't personal listening.
We'll be straight with you, because a vague answer here helps nobody: we don't clear popular music for you. We built the product so you don't need it cleared.
Welcome messages, today's special, loyalty prompts, shift notes. You recorded it or we generated it from your words. It's yours — there's no third party with a claim on it.
Beds and tracks licensed for commercial use in business premises. Not chart music — and that's the point. No commercially released popular song means no popular-music performance right to license.
This covers the audio you play through FrontDoorRadio. If you also run a radio in the back, or a staff member plays their phone through the same speakers, that audio is separate and remains your responsibility. We can only speak for our own.
Personal Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube on the shop speakers
Outside their terms of service. A real risk, and the most common one.
Broadcast radio in your business
Sometimes permitted at small premises under specific exemptions that vary by country and by the size of the space — and it plays your competitors' adverts.
FrontDoorRadio
Your own audio plus a commercially licensed royalty-free library. Nothing for you to clear, and every message is yours.
This isn't legal advice. Music licensing rules differ by country, by premises type and size, and change over time. This page explains how our product is built and why — it can't tell you what your specific business needs. If you're unsure, check with your national performing-rights organisation or a solicitor.
Your own station, your own words, nothing to clear. From $15/mo.