Café music that no future tariff can reprice
UAE music licensing is being formalised: collecting societies are state-licensed since 2025, inspections are announced, tariffs for background music are not yet published. For a café that means an unknown future bill for repertoire music. The Oktava catalog is registered with no society, in the UAE or elsewhere — $240 a year stays the whole cost, whatever the tariffs say.
A café day in the Gulf, scheduled once
Morning karak and laptops, a fast lunch turn, long social evenings — the daypart schedule shifts Oktava's channels through the day automatically, calm to lively to warm, with clean transitions and no ads. During the holy month, Ramadan mode switches daytime playback to quieter channels with one setting in the dashboard — built because venues here asked for it.
When inspections begin, the question will be what plays and what covers it. An Oktava café answers on the spot: the certificate — in English and Arabic — verifies live through its QR code, and the playback log lists every track. Nothing in the catalog belongs to any society's repertoire, so the coming tariffs, whatever they are, will be about other music.
How it works
Sign up, open the player on the counter tablet or a phone, set channels and the daypart schedule. The bilingual certificate and the playback log are in the dashboard from day one; cached channels keep playing through connection drops.
What it costs
$24 a month (≈ AED 88) or $240 a year per location — a fixed figure while repertoire-music pricing in the UAE is still unwritten. Trial: 7 days, no card.
Questions, answered
Tariffs aren't even published. Why act now?
Because the licensing framework already exists — societies are licensed and inspections announced. Fixing your music cost now means the tariffs, when published, will be about someone else's repertoire, not what plays in your café.
Everyone here plays Spotify. Are we different?
The apps' terms forbid business use of personal accounts today, tariffs or not. And once tariffs arrive, streaming apps are exactly the repertoire music they will price. Oktava replaces the app and pre-empts the tariff for what plays from our catalog.
Does Ramadan mode change the whole day?
It switches daytime playback to quieter channels for the month — one setting, reversible any time. Evening scheduling stays under your control.
This information is provided for general reference and is not legal advice.