Background music for cafés — without collecting-society fees
A café usually pays for music twice: the music service, and the public-performance tariff of the local collecting society. Oktava removes the second line for what our catalog plays: every track is created for the service and registered with no society, so for this catalog there is no tariff. Player, channels and the documents that prove it come in one subscription.
A soundtrack that follows the café day
A café doesn't need one playlist — it needs three. Something slow and quiet while the first coffees go out, something busier when every table is taken at lunch, warmer and lower again in the evening. In the Oktava dashboard you schedule channels by time of day once, and the player switches on its own — nobody behind the counter has to touch a phone. The channels are curated for hospitality: steady energy, no jarring transitions, no ads between tracks.
The legal side matters in a café more than owners expect, because cafés are where collecting societies look first — the speakers are audible from the street. The Oktava catalog contains no society repertoire, so for it there is nothing to license. The named certificate hangs by the counter; the playback log shows what actually played, hour by hour.
How it works
Sign up, open the player on a device you already have — a tablet, a phone, the counter computer — pick channels and set the day schedule. The certificate and the playback log are issued in the dashboard from day one, and the player keeps playing when the internet doesn't: channels are cached locally.
What it costs
€15 per location per month, or €150 a year — the base price list; your country's prices are on the pricing section of the site. The trial runs 7 days and needs no card.
Questions, answered
Do I still need a collecting-society license?
Not for the Oktava catalog — it's registered with no society, so there is nothing for them to license. If radio or Spotify also plays in your café, the society tariff applies to that: the promise is about the catalog, not about the room.
Can we keep Spotify for the evening shift?
You can — but that playback is repertoire music, licensed by your society regardless of our certificate, and the apps' own terms forbid business use of personal accounts. The playback log will show both sources honestly. Most cafés keep it simple: Oktava on the speakers, nothing else.
Can the music change through the day by itself?
Yes. Set the schedule once — which channel plays at breakfast, at lunch and in the evening — and the player switches automatically. Staff can still skip a track or change the channel at any moment.
This information is provided for general reference and is not legal advice.