Dubai · United Arab Emirates
Background Music for Businesses in Dubai
From 1 December 2026, Dubai venues playing music commercially will need an annual licence. One MUSICVYBE subscription covers all five commercial music rights, in Dubai and everywhere else you trade.
Few cities in the world play more commercial music per square kilometre than Dubai. Downtown’s hotel and dining density, the beach club strip along Jumeirah and the Palm, the office-lunch trade in DIFC and Business Bay, and a retail calendar built around mall footfall all run on sound from opening to close — and most of it has never sat under a licence, because until 2025 there was no licensed body in the country to issue one.
That is what changes in December. For an operator with several outlets across Downtown, the Marina and a mall concession, the new framework is not a single decision but a set of them, taken venue by venue and renewed every year.
The five rights
What the December framework covers
Two organisations licensed by the Ministry of Economy and Tourism — the Emirates Music Rights Association and Music Nation — cover public performance only: two of the five commercial music rights. Critically, they do not divide those rights between them. They divide repertoire. Each licenses its own assigned catalogue for the same two rights, which means a venue playing a mixed programme of local and international music may need both licences and will still be uncovered on reproduction, master and publishing rights. Those three sit directly with rights holders, outside what collective rights management is designed to deliver.
MUSICVYBE licenses directly from the IP owners across all five rights. The clearance travels with the recordings rather than with the territory, which means a Dubai venue and a sister property in Singapore or London sit under the same arrangement.
By sector in Dubai
Hotels
Lobby, dining, pool, spa and corridor zones under one programme.
Restaurants
Brunch through late dining, dayparted to the service pattern.
Cafés
One sound across every site, whoever is on shift.
Retail Stores
Brand-aligned programming across mall and street formats.
Gyms & Fitness
Floor and studio zones scheduled to the class timetable.
Music Licensing
What applies in Dubai from 1 December 2026.
Experience that travels
MUSICVYBE has programmed music for hospitality, retail and banking groups across Asia-Pacific for more than twenty years, including Jewel Changi Airport, Fairmont Singapore, Swissôtel The Stamford, Pan Pacific Hotels Group and OCBC Bank. In Dubai, we previously provided the music programme for Raffles Dubai.
Fairmont Singapore and Swissôtel The Stamford reduced annual licensing costs by over SGD 43,000 by consolidating onto a single directly licensed subscription. The figures differ market to market; the structure of the saving does not.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Dubai businesses need a music licence?+
Yes, from 1 December 2026. The framework applies across the UAE under Ministerial Resolution No. 136 of 2026 and covers restaurants, cafés, hotels, retail outlets, shopping malls, gyms and fitness centres, airlines, radio and television. Licences are valid one year and renewable.
Is licensing different in Dubai from the rest of the UAE?+
No. The framework is federal, set by the Ministry of Economy and Tourism, and administered by the two licensed organisations nationally. Fee brackets are determined by the type and size of the business rather than by emirate.
Does a free zone address change our position?+
Copyright and the collective management framework operate under federal law. Businesses in free zones should confirm their specific position when applying rather than assuming their licensing regime exempts them from music licensing obligations.
Can one subscription cover venues in several emirates?+
Yes. Because our licences are held directly with the IP owners and carry global rights, a single subscription covers venues in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and any other market a group operates in, without separate arrangements in each.
Ready before December
Send us your Dubai venue list and we will map your current arrangements against all five commercial music rights. You keep the mapping regardless.