1Do you need a music licence?
If customers can hear commercially released music, that is a public performance under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and you need permission. In practice that means TheMusicLicence, the single joint licence PPL and PRS for Music sell together through PPL PRS, because a normal playlist crosses both of their repertoires.
There is no small premises exemption in the UK. The two provisions that came closest, sections 67 and 72(1B)(a) of the Act, were both repealed, the latter by regulation 4(1) of SI 2010/2694. So floor area, seat count and the number of loudspeakers make no difference, and it makes no difference whether the sound comes from a radio, a CD or a streaming account. If it can be heard by customers, it is licensable.
There are also no statutory damages here, as there are in the United States. A rights holder claims damages or an account of profits, with costs and an injunction on top, and PPL PRS can back-date a licence over any period you were playing music without one.
RadioB2B removes the question. Every track is licensed at source through RadioPRO Ltd, a UK collective management organisation, and none of it is in the PRS for Music or PPL repertoire, so no public performance royalty arises on what you play through the service.
2Programming for calm, not for atmosphere
Nothing here should build. The schedule exists to hold a steady, low, predictable level across the day, because sudden change is what unsettles animals.
| Period | What works |
|---|---|
| Opening | Quiet ambient near 60 BPM. Early appointments are often the anxious ones and the drop-offs. |
| Morning clinic | Hold 60 to 70 BPM, instrumental. Consistency matters more than variety. |
| Midday | Unchanged through the quiet surgical period, kept low near the kennels. |
| Afternoon clinic | Steady 65 BPM as the waiting room fills again for evening appointments. |
| Overnight | A very low ambient bed in the kennels, which is calmer for boarded animals than silence. |
You can try the scheduler on the live console on our home page before signing up for anything.
3Zones: waiting room, consulting rooms, kennels, prep
Each independently controlled output is a zone, and each runs its own station and volume.
- The waiting room on the calm schedule above, low enough to talk over.
- Consulting rooms, where a steady bed of sound keeps a difficult conversation from carrying.
- The kennels and boarding area, quieter still, and running overnight if you board.
- The prep and surgical area, on whatever the clinical team prefers.
4Hardware you already own
There is nothing to buy and nothing to install. The player runs in any browser and casts directly to Sonos, Chromecast and AirPlay. There are iOS and Android apps as well, so staff can change a zone without opening a laptop, and when the internet drops the player keeps going from a cached queue rather than leaving you in silence.
5Reminders and seasonal advice
Record your own audio and schedule it into the rotation. A vaccination reminder in the waiting room, a flea and worming prompt in season, or fireworks advice that runs for a fortnight and stops on its own.
6What it costs
£89 a year, per year, flat, music included. That covers the full catalog, background music video channels for any screens, the scheduler, your own announcements, staff accounts and the Music Licence Certificate. It does not scale with your square footage or your opening hours, which is the mechanism that makes a PPL PRS bill climb.
For comparison, TheMusicLicence costs £168.71 a year plus VAT for an office with four staff or fewer, and PPL PRS can back-date a licence over any period you were playing music without one. Licence free playlist libraries in the UK sit at about 15 pounds a month plus VAT, and licensed services that still leave you owing PPL PRS run from about 22 to 40 pounds a zone a month. See how the routes compare.
Try it in your own space
Fourteen days free, no card required. Build a day's schedule, cast it to the speakers you already have, and hear how the room changes before you decide anything.
7Questions
Do veterinary clinics need a music license?
Yes, if commercially released music is audible to clients in the waiting room. That is a public performance under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, the same as any other business premises.
Does music calm animals, or is that a myth?
There is genuine evidence that steady, slow, low-volume music reduces stress behaviors in kennelled dogs, with classical and ambient programming performing better than silence or talk radio. The effect is real but modest, and habituation means variety within a calm range works better than one repeated playlist.
Can the kennels run overnight?
Yes. The kennel zone can hold a very low ambient station outside opening hours, which is usually calmer for boarded animals than an empty building.
What does it cost for a clinic?
A flat £89 a year, including the music, with no PPL or PRS for Music fees on anything played through the service.
Cost figures are indicative 2026 published minimums and typical market pricing, not quotations. General information, not legal advice. See our Terms of Use and Service Agreement.