Music licence for a hair salon in India: PPL, IPRS and Novex explained
Music is working furniture in an Indian hair salon: the Bollywood playlist covers the dryers, the FM station keeps the waiting bench patient, and the right volume tells a client what kind of salon she has walked into. Legally, though, the playlist in your salon is not the playlist in your kitchen. Playing recorded music where clients and staff can hear it counts as public performance under the Copyright Act, 1957, and in India that can mean fees to more than one organisation, because a recorded song carries several copyrights at once: the sound recording itself, and the words and music underneath it.
This guide is published on the blog of ViteUneCoupe, a free online booking tool for hair salons with no commission, and it treats music licensing the way we treat software pricing: figures from the official tariff documents, in the currency they are printed in, dated, with the genuinely unsettled parts labelled as unsettled instead of papered over. Every figure and claim below was checked in October 2026.
Why the playlist in your salon needs permission at all
PPL India's own tariff scheme names the setting directly: the on-ground usage of recorded music it controls applies "at all public places including but not limited to hotels, restaurants... stores, shops, salon, parlours" and any other premises communicating music to the public, whether for customers or just for staff (PPL India tariff scheme, w.e.f. 8 July 2025, checked in October 2026). It does not matter that you charge nothing for the music, that the source is a phone rather than a sound system, or that only your team is listening between clients.
The part that surprises most owners is the layering. One song on your speaker contains at least two separate bundles of rights:
- the sound recording: the actual recorded track, owned by a label;
- the musical and literary works: the composition and lyrics, whose royalties flow to composers, lyricists and publishers.
Playing the track in your salon uses both layers at once, and in India the two layers are licensed by different organisations. That is why one licence, on its own, rarely settles the whole question.
Who is who: PPL, IPRS and Novex
Three names dominate every demand letter and every confused forum thread:
- PPL India (Phonographic Performance Limited) licenses the public performance of sound recordings on behalf of roughly 500 labels, including T-Series, Sony Music India and Universal Music India. In June 2026 the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade granted PPL registration as a copyright society under the Copyright Act, after years in which it licensed without that status (Music Plus on PPL's registration, checked in October 2026). Before that, the registered society for sound recordings was RMPL (Recorded Music Performance Limited), whose own registration ran its five-year term; older articles reflect that earlier landscape.
- IPRS (The Indian Performing Right Society) is the registered copyright society for the words and music: it collects for authors, composers and publishers when their works are performed in public (IPRS tariff schemes, checked in October 2026).
- Novex Communications licenses on-ground performance rights for specific large catalogues as an owner or assignee of the rights rather than as a registered society; Zee Music and Yash Raj Films are the names that recur in the court records (LiveLaw on Novex Communications v. Trade Wings Hotels, checked in October 2026). If your playlist leans on those catalogues, Novex may be a third door to knock on.
So the honest short answer to "which licence does a salon need?" is: it depends on what you play, and in the common case of mixed Bollywood and international playlists, budget for at least PPL and IPRS, and check whether your music touches Novex-controlled catalogues. Nobody can honestly promise you that one licence definitively covers everything.
What PPL charges a hair salon
PPL's tariff is the easiest part of this subject, because it has a category written for exactly your business: Category 17, officially titled "Hairdressing Salons/Beauty Parlours", for background music within such premises. The published rates, in force from 1 April 2025, are annual, per outlet, in rupees:
| Size of the premises | PPL annual fee per outlet |
|---|---|
| Up to 1,000 sq ft | ₹12,000 |
| 1,001 to 3,000 sq ft | ₹18,000 |
| Above 3,000 sq ft | ₹18,000 plus ₹2 per sq ft beyond 3,000 |
Three details from the same tariff document matter as much as the figures (PPL India tariff scheme, checked in October 2026):
- The tariff covers every playback device, radio and TV included. It applies to music played "by any mechanical or electronic device, including radio, television..., record/CD/tape players and digital music service". In India, switching from a playlist to the FM station does not take you out of PPL's salon tariff, which is the opposite of how some other countries treat radio.
- Background music only. The licence is not valid for events, shows or DJ parties; those need a separate event licence.
- Playing first and licensing later is priced as the expensive path. The scheme warns that users without an advance licence lose the benefit of the tariff rates, and that management may impose damages at "a suitable multiple" of the applicable tariff for infringement, plus additional fees to regularise past use.
The document does not spell out GST treatment for this category, so ask whether 18% GST lands on top of the quoted fee and get the answer in writing. If your salon is GST-registered, your accountant will also want the invoice; how GST works for a salon generally is covered in our guide to GST for hair salons in India.
What IPRS charges: no salon-named category, so ask
IPRS publishes tariff schemes by premises type, and here the honesty gets harder: as of the scheme placed before its 2025 AGM, no category names hair salons. The closest fit is "SOP: Service Oriented Premises", written for health clubs, clinics, petrol pumps "and all other Commercial Premises of similar nature", with these annual rates in force from 1 April 2025, explicitly exclusive of GST (IPRS tariff schemes, Annexure A, checked in October 2026):
| Size of the premises | IPRS annual fee (SOP category) |
|---|---|
| Up to 5,000 sq ft | ₹10,000 |
| 5,001 to 10,000 sq ft | ₹30,000 |
| 10,001 to 20,000 sq ft | ₹60,000 |
Since almost every hair salon in the country sits comfortably under 5,000 sq ft, the realistic IPRS line is ₹10,000 a year plus GST, if SOP is the category IPRS applies to you; a retail-premises tariff also exists. Do not guess: ask IPRS in writing which tariff covers a hair salon at your address and keep the answer with the licence.
Why the internet contradicts itself: the section 33 battles
Search this topic and you will find law-firm notes saying businesses must pay PPL and Novex, other notes saying those very demands were illegal, and forum threads citing both. Neither side was making it up; the High Courts genuinely disagreed.
The dispute is about section 33(1) of the Copyright Act, which reserves "the business of issuing or granting licences" to registered copyright societies. For years PPL and Novex were not registered societies, and licensed instead as owners and assignees of the rights under section 30. In January 2024 the Bombay High Court held that this is lawful: section 33(1) cannot curtail an owner's power to license its own works (LiveLaw on the Bombay judgment, checked in October 2026). In 2025 the Delhi High Court took the opposite view in PPL's suit against the restaurant operator Azure Hospitality, and the fight moved to the Supreme Court, which stayed parts of the Delhi orders in April 2025 and then clarified that its interim stay binds only the parties to that case: third parties cannot wave the stay around to avoid paying licence fees (LiveLaw on the Supreme Court's clarification, checked in October 2026).
PPL's registration as a copyright society in June 2026 defuses most of that argument for PPL's own licences going forward. But the broader question of licensing by non-registered rights owners, which still matters for demands from other entities, has not been finally settled by the Supreme Court as of October 2026. Two practical conclusions for a salon owner, and neither is "ignore the letter":
- "They are not a registered society" is not a safe reason to play unlicensed music. The recordings are protected either way, infringement is actionable either way, and the court that hears your case may sit in Bombay's line of reasoning rather than Delhi's.
- Verify every demand before paying it. Ask the sender to identify the repertoire they control, the legal basis of the licence and the tariff category applied, in writing. A genuine licensor answers those questions routinely.
This article is general information, not legal advice; for a dispute or a demand letter, talk to a lawyer who handles copyright matters.
Sangeet Dwar: the one-window portal
The newest development cuts the paperwork rather than the price: in 2026 the music industry soft-launched Sangeet Dwar, a single-window digital platform for public performance permissions, bringing IPRS, PPL, Novex and RMPL into one interface at vasantsangeetdwar.in (The Tribune on the launch, checked in October 2026). The early messaging centres on events and venues, and it is new, so treat it as the place to start the applications rather than a guarantee that one click covers every layer; confirm on your receipts which organisations your payment actually licensed.
Spotify, YouTube and the personal-account trap
A detail that catches salons everywhere, India included: a personal streaming subscription is not a commercial licence. Spotify's own support page states the service "is only for personal, non-commercial use", and a Premium plan changes the ads, not the restriction (Spotify on commercial use, checked in October 2026). The same logic applies to personal YouTube and other consumer apps: your subscription bought private listening, not the right to perform the music to your clients. The public performance licences above sit on top of whatever source you use, and the source's own terms have to allow business playback too. If a "royalty-free business music" provider claims its catalogue needs no PPL or IPRS licence at all, that can be true only if nothing you play sits in their repertoires: get the claim in writing, and remember it collapses the day a stylist switches the speaker to an FM app or a chart playlist.
What this means for your salon budget
A deliberately simple worked example, for a salon under 1,000 sq ft playing ordinary mixed playlists: ₹12,000 to PPL plus ₹10,000 to IPRS is ₹22,000 a year before GST, roughly ₹1,800 to ₹2,000 a month, more if a Novex catalogue licence applies. Against that, the genuinely free and legal option is silence, and the in-between options are licensed radio-style simplicity (still inside PPL's device list in India, remember) or a verified royalty-free catalogue. Whichever you choose, decide before the speaker goes on: every tariff in this article prices "played first, licensed later" worse than "licensed first". If you are opening a hair salon in India, put the music question on the same formalities list as your Shops and Establishments registration, and if you run one already, make this the month the question gets a written answer.
One last note from the software side of this blog, kept short because music licensing is not our fight: ViteUneCoupe does none of the above. It is booking software: the free plan gives a hair salon unlimited online bookings with 0% commission permanently, a booking page, a service catalogue and a client database, and the Standard plan (from 29 € excluding tax per month, billed in euros, no commitment) adds confirmation and reminder emails plus calendar sync. No SMS, no WhatsApp sending, and nothing to do with music. We mention it here for one reason: the atmosphere budget only pays off when the chairs the music plays to are actually booked.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a music licence to play Bollywood songs in my hair salon in India?
In almost every case yes, and usually more than one. PPL India licenses the sound recordings of around 500 labels and its tariff names salons explicitly, with a dedicated category at ₹12,000 a year for premises up to 1,000 sq ft. IPRS licenses the underlying words and music separately, and Novex Communications controls on-ground rights for certain large catalogues. What you owe depends on what you play; no single licence can be assumed to cover everything (tariffs checked in October 2026).
How much does a music licence cost a small hair salon in India?
For a salon under 1,000 sq ft, PPL's published rate is ₹12,000 a year, and IPRS's closest published category runs ₹10,000 a year for premises up to 5,000 sq ft, exclusive of GST: roughly ₹22,000 a year before tax if both apply, plus any catalogue-specific licence. Figures from the official PPL and IPRS tariff documents, checked in October 2026; confirm your category and the GST treatment in writing when you apply.
Can I just play the radio or TV in my salon without a licence?
Not in India. PPL's salon tariff explicitly covers music played by "any mechanical or electronic device, including radio, television", CD players and digital music services, so the FM station in your salon sits inside the same tariff as a playlist. Some countries treat radio in a shop differently, which is why foreign articles give a different answer; the Indian tariff text is what applies to you.
Is it legal to play my personal Spotify account in the salon if I hold the licences?
No. Spotify's own terms limit the service to personal, non-commercial use, so business playback breaches the platform's rules regardless of which public performance licences you hold. Use a source whose terms allow commercial playback, and keep the PPL and IPRS questions separate from the source question: you need both sides in order.
What happens if my salon just ignores all this?
The recordings stay protected whether or not the organisation writing to you is a registered copyright society, and the Supreme Court has clarified that the stay in the PPL v. Azure litigation protects only the parties to that case, not third parties hoping to avoid fees. PPL's tariff also prices non-compliance directly: unlicensed users lose the tariff rates and face damages at a multiple of the fee. Verify every demand in writing before paying, but do not mistake the ongoing litigation for permission to play unlicensed music.
