UAE Music Licence Fees: What Venues Need to Know Before December 2026

From 1 December 2026, businesses in the UAE that play music commercially, including restaurants, cafes, hotels, malls and gyms, will need an annual music public-performance licence under Ministerial Resolution No. 136 of 2026.

Fees are collected by two Ministry-licensed collective management organisations, so a venue that has never paid for music before should budget for a new recurring cost and decide who in the business owns it.

The Ministry of Economy and Tourism launched its Collective Management in Music Guide on 11 August 2026, and fees start in December. Public reporting describes a rate card, but the detail is thinner than the headline suggests, and penalties have not been published. This guide separates what is confirmed from what should be checked against the Guide before you budget.

“The licence is annual and tied to how music is used and how big the venue is. What a missed payment costs has not been spelled out in anything we could find.”

What the new regime is

For years, businesses in the UAE could play background music with little formal clearance beyond whatever their streaming or radio subscription allowed. Resolution 136 of 2026 turns public performance of music into a licensed activity with a defined annual fee. The Ministry’s announcement says the Guide sets the fees for licences to practise collective management in music, covering restaurants and cafes, shopping malls, fitness centres, hotels and floating hotels, airlines, radio stations, television channels, and concerts and similar events.

The money flows through two collective management organisations that the Ministry has licensed: Music Nation and the Emirates Music Rights Association. A DLA Piper note reports that a business needs only one licence rather than a separate permit from each, though it does not explain how the two bodies divide collections. Legal500 observed in late August that the coordination arrangements between the two had not yet been published.

See our guide on choosing between free zone and mainland for a food and beverage venue to see where a food venue sits among its other licences and approvals.

Who has to pay and who does not

The covered list reads like a map of the places where music is part of the customer experience. Restaurants, cafes, hotels, shopping malls, gyms, airlines, radio and television broadcasters, and concerts or similar events are named. Retail shops also appear in the reported rate card. The test is commercial use of music, so a small boutique with a speaker at the till is closer to the rule than it might assume.

Exemptions are narrower. The Ministry names educational and academic institutions, government entities, music used in national occasions, and personal celebrations or other non-commercial events, and says it may exempt other uses by decision. A private wedding at home is outside the regime. A wedding hosted by a paying hotel is a different question, because the hotel’s own licence will be the focus.

The sources describe the regime as applying across the country. They do not explain how free zone licensing authorities will handle venues in their zones, so a free zone restaurant should ask its authority and the collective management organisations whether and how it is covered.

See our guide on the UAE gym and fitness centre licence if you run a studio, since fitness operators are one of the named groups.

What the fees look like as reported

The Ministry release we read states that fee brackets vary with the nature of the music use and the size of the economic activity, without giving individual amounts. Gulf media, including Emirates 24|7, have published figures taken from the Guide itself. Treat them as reported figures to verify against the Guide, because the Ministry text we could open did not list them.

For restaurants and cafes using background music, the reported fees are AED 1,500 for up to 50 seats, AED 2,700 for 51 to 100 seats and AED 4,800 for 101 to 200 seats, plus AED 20 per seat above 200, capped at AED 6,000 a year. Where a DJ or entertainment is added, the reported fees rise to AED 2,500, AED 3,500 and AED 6,500 across the same bands, with a cap of AED 8,000.

Retail shops are reported at AED 1,700 for premises up to 300 square metres and AED 3,400 for 301 to 700 square metres, then AED 60 for each extra 25 square metres, up to AED 20,000. Gyms are reported at AED 1,700 up to 300 square metres, with larger sites charged per square metre and capped at AED 6,000. Hotels, malls, airlines and broadcasters have their own schedules, with reported caps such as AED 25,000 for hotels and AED 50,000 for large malls, and broadcasters charged as a percentage of annual income with a reported minimum of AED 1,700.

See our guide on the recurring costs of running a UAE company beyond its first year for how recurring licence costs like this add up in an annual budget.

The Cultural Support Fund and AI-generated music

Ten per cent of the total collected is allocated to a new Cultural Support Fund in the Field of Music. The Ministry says it will finance composition, production, distribution and live performance, support emerging talent and promote Emirati music abroad, and will be run through a joint committee of the Ministry of Economy and Tourism and the Ministry of Culture. A payer’s fees are therefore partly a levy for the sector rather than all going to rights holders.

DLA Piper also reports that fully AI-generated music cannot be licensed because it lacks copyright protection in the UAE, while music with sufficient human creative input, even if partly AI-assisted, remains eligible. For a venue, the point is practical: a licence helps with music by registered writers, but it does not turn a fully machine-made catalogue into protected repertoire.

See our guide on the UAE beauty salon and spa licence if your salon or spa plays music in treatment rooms, a use that falls within the “commercial use” idea even though salons are not named in the headline list.

What has not been published

Four gaps matter for planning. First, penalties. None of the Ministry text, law-firm notes or media reports we reviewed gave a fine for playing music without a licence, or described an inspection process, so we cannot say what a breach costs. Second, the application route: sources say licences run for one year and renew under the applicable rules, but none we saw explains how a business applies, or whether one portal handles both collective management organisations.

Third, live events. DLA Piper notes that tariffs for concerts and comparable events had not been finalised. Fourth, the reported fee tables rely on secondary reporting of the Guide, and Legal500 said on 24 August that a detailed fee schedule and coordination arrangements had not yet been published. Those statements are hard to reconcile, which is why we recommend reading the Guide itself.

See our guide on how to choose and change a UAE trade licence activity code if your business has several activities and you need to work out which premises actually play music to customers.

How to prepare before 1 December

Start with an inventory. List each premises, the number of seats or floor area, and how music is used: background playlist, DJ, live band, television or in-store radio. Those variables drive the reported brackets. Then check what you already pay for. A commercial streaming subscription may include limited public-performance rights, but there is no confirmation in the sources we read that it satisfies the new licence.

Next, decide ownership of the licence inside the business. For a restaurant group, the cost may be set per outlet, and a lease or management agreement may already say who pays for licences operating inside a mall or hotel. Landlords in malls may be licensed themselves, and tenants should ask whether that covers their units.

See our guide on the unified food safety system and cloud kitchens for another 2026 compliance item that food operators are being asked to line up this year.

Finally, calendar the renewal. A one-year licence that starts on 1 December will renew annually, and late renewal is the type of event that tends to attract penalties once they are published.

Venues with more than one kind of music use

Real venues rarely fit a single bracket. A hotel runs lobby background music, a pool bar with a DJ, a ballroom that hosts weddings and a gym on the third floor, while a mall may combine common-area music with tenant-owned shops that each play their own playlists. The reported tariff is organised by venue type and use, which suggests that the licence category will depend on how each area is operated, though we have not seen guidance on how mixed-use sites are assessed.

Two questions help. Who controls the speakers: the operator, the tenant or an outside contractor? And who is the licence holder: the entity that holds the trade licence for the premises, or the landlord? Where a tenant operates its own system, the sensible assumption is that the tenant needs to confirm coverage, but this should be verified with the licensed organisations rather than inferred.

Event organisers face a related issue. Concerts and similar events are listed among the covered categories, but DLA Piper reports that their tariffs had not been finalised. A promoter planning December or January events should ask the organisations how those events will be charged and whether the venue’s own licence covers them.

Keep a simple music log for each premises: the source of the music, the number of seats or floor area, the days with live or DJ performance and the person responsible. If a tariff is later published by use, this record turns a disagreement about categories into a quick check.

Common mistakes when approaching the music licence

• Assuming a streaming subscription or radio subscription already covers public performance in a venue.
• Treating the reported fee table as final without reading the Ministry’s Guide for your category.
• Ignoring the DJ or live entertainment tier, which the reported tariff prices higher than background music.
• Waiting for penalties to be announced before acting, when the licence requirement starts on 1 December regardless.

When professional help is worth it

Professional input helps most for multi-site operators, hotels and venues with live acts, where the right tariff category is not obvious and contracts with landlords or operators may shift the cost. A lawyer or licensing consultant can read the Guide against your premises, and an accountant can place the fee in your cost base from December.

E.zone, which specialises in setting up and licensing hospitality businesses, can help check which approvals your venue needs. See e.zone’s guide on the food and beverage industry in the UAE for the wider picture of running a venue.

This is general information and not legal advice. Because the fee schedule, application route and penalties were still being clarified when we checked, confirm each point with the Ministry or the licensed organisations before December.

Frequently asked questions

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