Do you need a music licence for your yoga or Pilates classes?

The music is usually the part of running a studio you rarely think about. There is a speaker in the corner, there is a playlist, and whoever is teaching puts something on before the room fills up.

Then somebody mentions a licence, and it turns out there are two things to square rather than one.

The short version first. If music plays in your studio, you almost certainly need a licence, and the money involved is small. The part that catches studios out is the second thing: the app the music comes from probably does not allow you to use it this way, whatever licence you hold.

This is not legal advice. It is a summary of what PPL PRS, Spotify and Apple publish about their own terms, checked on 22 October 2026. Terms change, and the only people who can tell you what you owe are the ones you owe it to.

Who needs a licence

PPL PRS issue what they call TheMusicLicence, which covers both licensing societies in one go rather than leaving you to deal with each separately. On their page for fitness, exercise and dance classes, they put it like this:

“If you play or perform music in your gym, fitness class or dance studio the chances are you need TheMusicLicence”

That is their own wording, hedge and all. They say the chances are, not that it always applies.

The same page also speaks to teachers working outside a studio of their own, saying that those who “host classes in venues, such as church halls or community centres” will “need to have a music licence in place”. Worth knowing if your teachers run their own classes elsewhere, because that one is theirs rather than yours.

What “playing music in public” means

The phrase does a lot of work here, so it is worth having their definition rather than an assumption:

“Broadly speaking, this includes any presentation of music outside of a domestic setting.”

Which is wider than it sounds. A studio of your own is not a domestic setting, and nor is a room you hire. A class of six is as public as a full Saturday session.

What it costs

PPL PRS do not publish a formula. The price depends on how much you run and how many people come, so there is no single figure for them to put on a page. As they say, the cost “varies depending on the specific characteristics of each business”.

Their quote checklist asks for two things: the number of classes you hold a year, and your annual aggregate attendance (everyone who came, added up across the year). If you take bookings online you can pull both out of your own records in a couple of minutes.

They do publish two worked examples, and those are the most useful part of the page. Their fitness example is an instructor “holding three classes every week for 50 weeks of the year”, at £345 a year, or £2.30 per class, plus VAT. Their dance example is an instructor holding three classes a week, with 20 participants, for 50 weeks of the year, in a village hall or community centre, at £96.24 a year, or 64p per class, plus VAT.

Both are a hundred and fifty classes a year, and the page does not say why one costs so much more than the other. It does say all its examples are subject to change. So read them as a sense of scale rather than a price list. A busier timetable costs more than either, but the shape of it is pounds per class, not something that changes how you run the place.

Our class pricing calculator has a place for small fixed costs like this one, if you are totting up what a timetable really costs to run.

The bit that catches studios out: where the music comes from

This is the part that is easy to miss, and it is worth knowing before you spend money on the wrong thing.

TheMusicLicence deals with the copyright side. It does not change the terms of the app the music is coming from, and the consumer tiers of the familiar services are meant for personal listening only.

Spotify say so on their own help pages:

“Spotify is only for personal, non-commercial use.”

And they spell out what that excludes. You “can’t broadcast or play Spotify publicly from a business, such as bars, restaurants, schools, stores, salons, dance studios, radio stations, etc.” Dance studios are on their list by name.

Apple take the same line in their media services terms, allowing use of the services and content “only for personal, noncommercial purposes”, and adding that Apple’s delivery of content “does not transfer any commercial or promotional use rights to you”.

Amazon Music, YouTube Music and the rest set their own terms, so read the ones for whatever your studio actually uses.

So the licence covers playing music in public, and the app’s terms decide whether you may use that app to do it. Spotify point their commercial customers to a separate service called Soundtrack, and there are several others built for playing music in a business. Each is a monthly subscription of its own, so price one before you commit.

There is a third route, and GOV.UK names it: “You do not need a licence to play royalty-free music.” Music written and licensed for this purpose sidesteps both problems at once, provided the library’s own terms cover playing it in a studio. What it will not be is the playlist somebody has built up over years, which is the real cost of going that way.

Nothing bad happens the moment you read this. But if the studio playlist lives on somebody’s personal account, that is the thing to change at the next natural moment.

If your teachers bring their own music

Most studios end up here without deciding to. One teacher has her own playlist on her own phone, another uses the studio tablet, and a cover teacher turns up with something on a laptop.

PPL’s published charges for exercise classes help here. Their Exercise To Music tariff names yoga and Pilates among the classes it covers. Where running classes is one of the main things a premises is for, it puts the licence for every class held there on the studio, however the class is run. On that wording, it is the studio’s licence that counts, not whose phone the music is playing from.

Two things to bear in mind. The copy published online ran from May 2025 to April 2026, so ask PPL PRS whether the current one says the same. And it covers PPL, the recordings side, rather than PRS, the songwriters’ side. Your quote from PPL PRS covers both, so describe your setup to them as it really is.

The licence still does not change the app’s terms, so a teacher’s personal Spotify is still a personal account. A single house rule is probably worth having: one account that the studio pays for, on a service whose terms allow it, with teachers adding to a shared playlist rather than bringing their own. It is one less thing for a cover teacher to get wrong at eight on a Monday morning.

Does your building’s licence cover you?

If you rent your space, this is usually the next question and it is a fair one.

The same PPL tariff draws the line in a helpful place. A premises whose main business is running classes licenses the classes held there. An instructor who hires a room somewhere else, such as a hall or an office, licenses their own class. So a studio run as a studio will usually be the one holding the licence, and a teacher hiring the church hall on a Tuesday evening will usually need their own.

Where your setup sits somewhere in between, get an answer you can keep. Ask the landlord or building manager whether they hold TheMusicLicence and whether it is meant to cover classes run by tenants or hirers, in an email rather than in passing; managing agents change, and a verbal yes from a few years ago will not help you later. Then ask PPL PRS the same thing, since they are the ones who decide. If the answers do not match, go with PPL PRS.

Getting it sorted

The UK government set out the rules on one short page: getting a licence to play live or recorded music. It is a two-minute read, and a better place to get it than from us.

Count your classes and your attendance across the year. Your booking records will be quicker than your memory.

Email PPL PRS for a quote, describing the setup honestly: premises, timetable, where the music comes from, and whether your teachers use their own accounts.

Email the landlord if you rent, and ask what their licence covers.

Then look at the music source. If the playlist is on a personal account, price a service whose terms allow business use and move it across when the subscription next comes up.

File what comes back with your insurance certificate, the other piece of paper nobody enjoys sorting out and everybody is glad to have. If that one is also on the list, there is more on what yoga teacher liability insurance actually covers.

Common questions

Does a Spotify or Apple Music subscription cover my studio? No, and the two issues are separate. TheMusicLicence covers playing music in public. Spotify’s own help pages say Spotify “is only for personal, non-commercial use” and name dance studios among the places you cannot play it, and Apple’s terms limit use to “personal, noncommercial purposes”. So you may well need the licence and a service meant for business use.

My teachers play their own music on their own phones. Where does that leave us? PPL’s published tariff for exercise classes puts the licence on the studio for every class held there, however the class is run, so whose phone it is matters less than you might think. The app is a separate question: a personal account is still for personal use. Describe the arrangement to PPL PRS when you ask for a quote.

Who actually gets the money? PRS for Music collects for songwriters, composers and music publishers. PPL collects for the recordings, and splits money from music played in public half to whoever owns the recording and half to the performers on it.

Is there a free music licence for yoga classes? Not from PPL PRS: TheMusicLicence is paid for, and priced on how many classes you run and how many people come. But GOV.UK says you do not need a licence to play royalty-free music. Royalty-free does not always mean free to buy, as most libraries charge once or by subscription, so check their terms cover playing it in a class.

How do I find out what mine would cost? Ask PPL PRS for a quote with the number of classes you hold a year and your annual aggregate attendance, the two things their checklist asks for.

Most studio owners find out about the second half of this years after the first, usually from another studio owner rather than from anybody official. If you have already been through it, what did yours come back as?

Checked on 22 October 2026 against PPL PRS’s fitness, exercise and dance classes page, PPL’s Exercise To Music tariff (May 2025 to April 2026), GOV.UK on music licences, PPL, Spotify’s help pages and Apple’s media services terms. Terms and tariffs change, so check the current wording at source. This is a summary of what they publish, and not legal advice.