Navigating the Copyright Act 1994, OneMusic NZ licensing, streaming terms of service, and 100% legal royalty-free alternatives.
Published: 2026-09-18 | Section: Offices & Waiting Rooms
Walk into any bustling cafe in Ponsonby, a boutique hair salon in Merivale, or a dental clinic in Palmerston North, and the first sensory element that greets you is sound. A silent commercial space feels clinical, uninviting, and uncomfortably intimate - every whisper, keyboard tap, or chair scrape echoes. Thoughtfully curated background music dissolves tension, masks intrusive mechanical noise, and establishes an immediate emotional connection with your clients.
However, many New Zealand business owners are caught off guard when an unexpected invoice or compliance letter arrives from OneMusic NZ, demanding hundreds or thousands of dollars for playing background music on commercial premises. Understanding your legal rights, your statutory obligations, and the smart alternatives available in 2026 is critical to protecting your bottom line.
In New Zealand, music copyright is governed by the Copyright Act 1994. The law grants two distinct intellectual property rights in every commercial song:
Under Section 32 of the Copyright Act, performing or playing a sound recording in "public" is a restricted act. New Zealand courts and statutory definitions interpret "public" broadly: any location where members of the public or employees gather outside the domestic family circle constitutes a public space. This encompasses retail stores, dining rooms, hair salons, beauty clinics, gyms, showrooms, and customer reception areas.
In the past, New Zealand businesses had to acquire two separate licences: one from APRA AMCOS (for the songwriters) and another from PPNZ / Recorded Music NZ (for the record labels). In 2013, the two bodies formed OneMusic NZ as a single joint licensing initiative to streamline administrative compliance.
OneMusic administers blanket licenses. When you purchase a OneMusic licence, you receive permission to play virtually any commercially released track from major domestic and international music catalogues (Universal, Sony, Warner, and affiliated publishers).
OneMusic charges annual recurring fees based on commercial categories:
For independent Kiwi business owners, micro-enterprises, and startup venues, these fees represent an ongoing overhead that adds up year after year.
A widespread misconception among small business owners is that paying $13.99 or $18.99 a month for a personal Spotify Premium, Apple Music, or YouTube Music subscription entitles them to connect their phone to the store's sound system. It does not.
When you subscribe to these consumer platforms, you agree to their legal Terms of Service, which state explicitly:
"The Spotify Service and Content are for personal, non-commercial use only." (Spotify Terms and Conditions of Use, Section 2)
Commercial public broadcast violates both the platform's contract and the Copyright Act. Even if you pay OneMusic NZ, streaming from a consumer Spotify account breaches Spotify's user agreement, meaning the platform can terminate your account without notice, and you remain technically uncompliant with publisher terms.
Are New Zealand businesses legally obligated to pay OneMusic NZ? No. A OneMusic licence is only required if you perform works registered in the APRA AMCOS or Recorded Music NZ repertoire.
Under contract law and the Copyright Act 1994, copyright holders retain the right to license their sound recordings directly to end users. When you play music that is direct-licensed and original - where the creators own both the underlying composition and the master recording - no collecting society holds rights over that audio.
This is where Lobby Tones comes in.
Lobby Tones was engineered from the ground up as an instant, zero-friction background music player for physical commercial venues:
Getting premium background music running in your space requires three effortless steps:
Connect your device via Bluetooth or a 3.5mm aux cable to your venue speakers, set your counter tablet down, and let Lobby Tones run in the background all day.
Evaluating commercial platforms like Soundtrack Your Brand, Epidemic Sound, Soundsuit, Mood Media, and Rockbot? Read our in-depth Commercial Music Streaming NZ: Top 5 Providers Compared (2026) to understand licensing traps, hidden hardware costs, and true 12-month TCO.
Managing an open-plan workspace, healthcare centre, or waiting room? Discover our guide on Acoustic Soundscapes for NZ Offices, Medical Clinics & Waiting Rooms for speech privacy and compliance under the Health Information Privacy Code.
Explore our sector guides for hospitality and accommodation: Cafe & Restaurant Music Licensing in NZ and Background Music for Boutique Hotels & Lodges in NZ.
Under Section 32 of the New Zealand Copyright Act 1994, playing copyrighted commercial sound recordings in public (which includes retail stores, cafes, salons, and waiting rooms) constitutes a public performance requiring permission from the copyright holder. Businesses typically pay annual fees to OneMusic NZ (a joint initiative of APRA AMCOS NZ and Recorded Music NZ) unless they use direct-licensed, original royalty-free music like Lobby Tones, which requires no third-party licence.
No. The standard End User License Agreements (EULA) and Terms of Service for consumer streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube strictly limit playback to personal, non-commercial use. Playing these services in a commercial setting violates their terms and fails to provide commercial public performance rights, exposing the business to legal liability regardless of whether a personal subscription is paid.
OneMusic NZ is the joint licensing body representing APRA AMCOS (songwriters, composers, and publishers) and Recorded Music NZ (recording artists and record labels). Annual licence tariffs are calculated based on venue type, floor area (square metres), customer capacity, and device usage, typically ranging from $350 to well over $2,000 per year for small-to-medium New Zealand businesses.
Lobby Tones streams entirely original, instrumental music produced specifically for commercial and public spaces. Because the tracks are direct-licensed and not registered with APRA AMCOS or Recorded Music NZ blanket collection societies, no OneMusic NZ licence fee or reporting is required to play Lobby Tones in your commercial premises.
Lobby Tones is proudly built and maintained by Infynt Solutions, a registered New Zealand digital agency based in Palmerston North. We build lightning-fast custom websites, automated customer booking flows, ecommerce stores, and intelligent AI software for Kiwi small businesses nationwide.
Explore Infynt Web & Software Solutions | Phone: 06 882 9543
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