The public performance right, and the four it leaves uncovered
A public performance licence is the permission most Singapore businesses ask about first. It is also the one most often mistaken for a complete licensing position. This page sets out exactly what it clears, and what it does not.
What “public performance” means when the venue is yours
Performance is a legal category, not a description of a stage. If music is audible to anyone beyond a private domestic circle, it is being performed in public.
A shop floor, a lobby, a treatment room, a lift and a car park all qualify. So does music audible only to staff. The question is never whether anyone is listening attentively; it is whether the space is public in character. Once it is, the exclusive right to perform that music in public has been exercised, and permission is required from whoever holds it.
That single act, however, engages two separate rights at once. The composition — melody and lyric — is one property. The specific recording of it is another, owned by a different party. A licence covering one does not cover the other. This is the structural fact behind most incomplete licensing positions in Singapore, and it is why the phrase “we have a music licence” carries almost no information on its own.
| Right | Cleared by a public performance licence? | Administered by |
|---|---|---|
| Public performance of the composition | Yes | COMPASS |
| Public performance of the sound recording | Yes, but only under a second licence | Music Rights Singapore |
| Reproduction of the sound recording | No | Recording owners, by territory |
| Publishing rights in the underlying song | No | Writers and publishers |
| Recording rights in the master | No | Labels and recording owners |
Two of five. A business operating on a public performance licence alone has cleared the right to play music aloud and nothing beyond it. If any file has been downloaded, cached or stored on a device on the premises, a right has been exercised that no performance licence reaches.
One right, two societies, two invoices
Public performance in Singapore is administered collectively, and the split is not cosmetic.
Under collective rights management, organisations negotiate and collect on behalf of rights holders who could never license every venue individually. Singapore has two such bodies working on background music: COMPASS, acting for songwriters, composers and publishers, and Music Rights Singapore, acting for record labels and recording owners.
They license different things, hold different repertoires and issue separate tariffs. A business that pays one and assumes coverage has bought half of one right. Both must be held, both renewed, both reconciled against actual usage, and both re-tendered when tariffs move.
The recurring expense of a public performance position is rarely a single line item. It is two society tariffs, plus the administrative burden of maintaining them, plus whatever is paid separately for the music itself.
Fairmont Singapore and Swissotel The Stamford moved to a directly licensed model and recorded an annual licensing saving of SGD 43,000+. The figure is a property of the licensing structure, not of the playlist.
A direct-licensing model changes the shape of the problem rather than the size of the bill alone. Where music is licensed at source from rights owners, the repertoire sits outside the societies’ collections, and the performance right travels with the service instead of being purchased separately alongside it.
The reproduction gap, and why a foreign supplier cannot close it
Reproduction is the right most commonly exercised without anyone noticing. A track downloaded to a media player, cached by an application, copied to a hard drive or loaded onto a device in a back office has been reproduced. Performance licences do not address this. Reproduction is licensed separately, and critically, it is licensed by territory.
This is where suppliers operating from another market create exposure for their Singapore clients. A provider holding reproduction rights valid in its home territory cannot confer valid Singapore coverage simply by selling into Singapore. The right does not travel with the invoice. The music may be perfectly licensed where the supplier sits and structurally unlicensed on the premises where it is actually stored and played.
- Ask which territory a supplier’s reproduction rights are granted for, not merely whether it holds them.
- Establish whether any file is written to storage on your premises — caching counts.
- Confirm whether coverage names Singapore specifically, or names a region the supplier assumes includes it.
The establishment is the liable party
Under Singapore law, responsibility for music performed on premises rests with the operator of those premises. Not the supplier, not the installer, not the contractor who configured the system. An indemnity clause in a supply agreement may give a business a commercial claim against its vendor after the fact; it does not transfer liability, and rights holders do not have to accept it.
Infringement carries statutory damages and injunctive relief under the Copyright Act 2021. That matters, but it is rarely the largest number in the calculation. The larger figures are the licensing spend that was avoidable and the operational cost of unwinding an installation mid-contract.
The practical consequence is simple: due diligence on a music supplier is not procurement hygiene, it is direct risk management for the entity whose name is on the lease. The questions that expose a gap before you sign are set out in music licence for business in Singapore.
Common questions
What is a public performance licence?+
It is permission to play copyrighted music where it can be heard beyond a private domestic setting. In Singapore it is issued in two parts: one covering the composition, administered by COMPASS, and one covering the sound recording, administered by Music Rights Singapore. Holding one does not clear the other.
Do I need a licence to play music in public in Singapore?+
Yes, if the music is copyrighted and audible to customers, guests or staff. This applies regardless of volume, regardless of whether the space charges admission, and regardless of where the music file came from.
Does a public performance licence cover downloaded or stored music?+
No. Downloading, caching, copying or storing a recording exercises the reproduction right, which is licensed separately from performance and granted by territory. This is the single most frequently overlooked gap in a Singapore licensing position.
Is one licence enough, or do I need two?+
Under the collective model, two are required for public performance alone, because the composition and the recording are separate properties held by separate parties. A direct-licensing arrangement removes the need to hold either separately, because the rights are cleared at source.
What happens if a business plays music without a licence in Singapore?+
Rights holders may pursue statutory damages and an injunction under the Copyright Act 2021, and the claim is made against the operator of the premises rather than the music supplier. Liability does not transfer by contract.
Clear all five rights with one subscription
MUSICVYBE licenses directly from rights owners, so performance and reproduction are covered together, in territory, without society administration. Fully managed across Lite, Pro and Signature — you do not schedule, curate or operate anything.
Related pages
| Page | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Music Licence for Business Singapore | Who is liable, and how to verify a supplier before signing |
| Singapore Copyright Act 2021 | The statute the five rights come from, and what it does not grant you |
| Music Licensing in Singapore | The overview of every licence a Singapore business may need |
| The Essential Guide to Background Music Licensing | The full five-rights framework, set out end to end |
| COMPASS Licence Singapore | The society administering the composition, and what its tariff covers |
| MRSS Licence Singapore | The society administering sound recordings in Singapore |
| Pricing | Lite, Pro and Signature, fully managed |