Ras Al Khaimah · United Arab Emirates
Background Music for Businesses in Ras Al Khaimah
From 1 December 2026, RAK venues playing music commercially will need an annual licence. One MUSICVYBE subscription covers all five commercial music rights, wherever you trade.
Ras Al Khaimah is the emirate with the most hospitality capacity still ahead of it. A substantial development pipeline across Al Marjan Island and the coastal strip means a meaningful share of the properties that will define this market in five years are not yet trading — and the ones being specified today are being specified after the licensing framework was published rather than before it.
That is an unusual position. Elsewhere in the country, operators are retrofitting a compliance answer onto arrangements built over years. Here, a significant number of properties get to design theirs from a clean sheet, alongside the AV and systems specification rather than after it.
The existing market has its own character: mountain and adventure tourism around Jebel Jais, beach resorts along the coast, an established industrial and free-zone economy, and a weekend escape trade drawn from Dubai and the northern emirates.
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. Clearance attaches to the recordings rather than the territory, so a RAK property and a sister site anywhere else sit under one arrangement.
For a property still in fit-out, that means the licensing question is answered at specification rather than left as an operational task for a general manager who has not yet been appointed.
By sector in Ras Al Khaimah
Hotels
Resort and mountain properties, zoned and scheduled centrally.
Restaurants
Destination dining on a weekend-weighted pattern.
Cafés
Resort, community and visitor-centre trade.
Retail Stores
Community centres and resort retail.
Gyms & Fitness
Resort clubs and residential facilities.
Music Licensing
What applies in RAK 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, Oakwood Premier and ParkRoyal Penang. In the UAE, 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 by market; the mechanism does not.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Ras Al Khaimah 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 RAK from the other emirates?+
No. The framework is federal, set by the Ministry of Economy and Tourism and administered nationally by the two licensed organisations. Fee brackets are determined by the type and size of the business and by how music is used, not by emirate.
We open after December. When does our obligation start?+
Fees apply from 1 December 2026, and licences are issued annually and renewably. A property opening after that date should establish its licensing position as part of pre-opening rather than after trading begins, since the obligation attaches to commercial music use rather than to a transition period.
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 Ras Al Khaimah, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and any other market a group operates in, without separate arrangements in each.
Ready before December
Send us your RAK venue list — trading or in fit-out — and we will map it against all five commercial music rights. You keep the mapping regardless.