Salon music PPL PRS has nothing to license
A salon playing the radio or a streaming app owes TheMusicLicence — PPL PRS collects for both PPL and PRS for Music, and a single room with speakers qualifies. The Oktava catalog is in neither repertoire, so a salon on Oktava pays £150 a year for everything: music, player, certificate, playback log.
Under the conversation, never over it
The salon chair is a conversation: colour consultations, catch-ups, the quiet concentration of a fade. Music belongs underneath — calm channels, even loudness, nothing that spikes while scissors are moving. Oktava's salon selection is built that way and mastered that way; the volume you set at opening is still right at the last appointment, and no ad break ever lands louder than the track before it.
One visible room makes a salon an easy licensing call. With Oktava the answer is on the wall: a named certificate whose QR opens a live verification page, and a playback log that shows what actually played on any given day — nothing from the PPL or PRS for Music repertoires among it.
How it works
Create the account, log the player in on the reception tablet or a spare phone, choose two or three calm channels, set the volume once. Documents live in the dashboard; cached channels cover connection drops.
What it costs
£15 a month or £150 a year per location, all-in — while repertoire music means TheMusicLicence plus a service bill. The 7-day trial needs no card.
Questions, answered
Will the music get in the way of clients talking?
No — the salon channels are selected for low dynamic range and even mastering, so the sound holds the room without competing with anyone in it.
Our salon is tiny. Does TheMusicLicence really apply?
For repertoire music, yes — venue size changes the price, not the principle. For the Oktava catalog there is nothing to license: it's registered with neither PPL nor PRS for Music, and the certificate documents that.
Is it really music only — no ads, no presenters?
Music only, track after track. No ads, no jingles, no talk — the practical reason salons switch away from radio.
This information is provided for general reference and is not legal advice.