What the COMPASS Licence Covers in Singapore
A COMPASS licence covers one of the five commercial music rights. Understanding which one — and which four it leaves open — is the difference between a business that is licensed and a business that believes it is.
What COMPASS Administers
The Composers and Authors Society of Singapore (COMPASS) is the collective management organisation representing songwriters, composers and music publishers in Singapore. When a business plays music in a commercial space, COMPASS licenses the public performance of the musical composition — the melody and the lyrics, as written.
This is a legitimate and necessary licence. It is administered under the framework of the collective rights management system, and any business performing repertoire controlled by COMPASS members needs it.
What matters commercially is what it does not reach.
One Right of Five
Commercial background music in Singapore engages five distinct rights. A COMPASS licence addresses the first.
- 1. Public performance of the composition — covered by COMPASS
- 2. Public performance of the sound recording — not covered
- 3. Reproduction of the sound recording — not covered
- 4. Recording and master rights — not covered
- 5. Publishing rights for commercial use — not covered
A business holding only a COMPASS licence has cleared the composition and left four rights unaddressed. This is not a criticism of COMPASS, which licenses precisely what it is constituted to license. It is a description of the scope.
The Gap Most Businesses Miss
Of the four remaining rights, reproduction is the one that catches established businesses by surprise.
A reproduction right is engaged whenever a sound recording is copied — downloaded to a media player, cached by an application, ripped from a disc, or stored on a local device. Most commercial background music systems do exactly this in normal operation. The music is not streamed and discarded; it is held on the hardware in the venue.
This creates a structural problem for businesses relying on suppliers licensed in another territory. Reproduction rights are territorial. A supplier operating under United States licensing frequently cannot confer valid reproduction coverage for use in Singapore, regardless of what the subscription agreement states.
Under Singapore law, the establishment playing the music is the legally responsible party. Not the supplier, not the software vendor, not the staff member who chose the playlist. That responsibility does not transfer by contract.
What This Costs in Practice
Businesses that assemble coverage through separate arrangements typically end up managing several agreements, each renewing on its own cycle, each audited separately, and none of them individually complete. The administrative cost is real, and the coverage still has holes in it.
The alternative is a directly licensed catalogue where all five rights are cleared at source. Fairmont Singapore and Swissotel The Stamford moved to this model and eliminated over SGD 43,000 in annual licensing cost across their properties, while removing the multi-agreement administration entirely.
The saving is a consequence of the structure, not a discount. When the rights are cleared upstream, there is nothing left to license downstream.
How MUSICVYBE Is Licensed
MUSICVYBE operates a directly licensed private-label catalogue. Every track carries clearance across all five commercial music rights, in a single subscription, valid for commercial use in Singapore and internationally.
The catalogue is curated by unnamed specialists with more than twenty years of experience programming music for hospitality, retail and financial environments. The service is fully managed — scheduling, dayparting, zone programming, seasonal refresh and compliance are handled on your behalf.
Because the content sits outside COMPASS repertoire, businesses using MUSICVYBE for their background music do not require a separate COMPASS licence for that music.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a COMPASS licence?+
A COMPASS licence grants permission for the public performance of musical compositions — the melody and lyrics — controlled by the composers, songwriters and publishers COMPASS represents. It is one of the licences a Singapore business may need to play music commercially, and it addresses one of five commercial music rights.
Does a COMPASS licence cover all the music my business plays?+
No. A COMPASS licence covers the composition, not the specific recording, and it does not cover reproduction, master rights or publishing rights for commercial use. Public performance of the sound recording is administered separately in Singapore by Music Rights Singapore. See our page on the MRSS licence in Singapore.
Do I still need a COMPASS licence if I use MUSICVYBE?+
Not for the music delivered through MUSICVYBE. Our catalogue is directly licensed and sits outside COMPASS repertoire, with all five commercial music rights cleared at source. If your venue also performs other music — live performance, or another source — that music is assessed on its own terms.
Who is legally responsible if my business is underlicensed?+
The establishment playing the music. Under the Singapore Copyright Act 2021, responsibility rests with the business operating the premises, not with the supplier of the music or the provider of the playback system. Liability does not transfer through a subscription agreement.
What are COMPASS music rights in Singapore?+
COMPASS administers performing rights in musical works on behalf of its members and affiliated overseas societies. In the framework of music licensing, these are composition rights — distinct from rights in the sound recording, which belong to labels and recording owners and are administered separately.
Related Pages
| Music Licensing in Singapore | The five commercial music rights explained |
| MRSS Licence Singapore | Public performance of the sound recording |
| The Essential Guide to Background Music Licensing | Full compliance walkthrough for Singapore businesses |
| Singapore Pricing | Lite, Pro and Signature service tiers |