Integrity Legal - Law Firm in Bangkok | Bangkok Lawyer | Legal Services Thailand Back to
Integrity Legal

Legal Services & Resources 

Up to date legal information pertaining to Thai, American, & International Law.

Contact us: +66 2-266 3698

info@integrity-legal.com

ResourcesCorporate and Tax AdvisoryThailand Corporate LawMusic Licensing for those Operating Restaurants or Bars in Thailand

Music Licensing for those Operating Restaurants or Bars in Thailand

Transcript of the above video:

In this video, we're going to briefly discuss music licenses in Thailand with respect to the F&B industry. Again, this is more specific to like restaurants, pubs, entertainment venues. Unlike other videos with respect to alcohol licensing, food licensing, tobacco licensing which is discussed in another video on this channel, this video is basically going to provide a brief overview of music licensing in Thailand which is something of a different color when you compare it to say, alcohol license. An alcohol license is a license from the government to sell alcohol in the Kingdom within the various laws as are statutorily enacted in the country.

Essentially, alcohol licensing allows a restaurant, bar grill, whatever, to go ahead and serve patrons who are of age alcohol and this is basically it's occurring and it’s a licensure between an individual or company, a private entity and the government you know, the public entity being the government.

Music licensing is a little bit different because what you're being licensed on or what you're getting a license for with respect to a music license is the right to use and sort of publicly within the confines of one business area, pub, again restaurant, whatever entertainment venue to go ahead and play music. And what we're talking about is copyrighted music here.

So you know, basically there are certain companies here in Thailand that provide licensing rights to go ahead and play certain types of music which are delineated in each one of those entities for lack of better word, songbook if you will. And you're basically getting a license, a limited sort of license within those artists copyright to basically put on that music in one venue. Again, sort of markedly different than licenses pertaining to the government because you're not exactly going to the government. But failure to have one of these licenses could result in a complaint being made and government intervention in the form of say law enforcement basically coming and saying “Look, you're in violation of copyright laws here in Thailand because you don't have a license to play whatever the copyrighted material in issue is that you happen to be playing.” You know the entity, the bar, the club, the restaurant, the entertainment venue at issue so a music license is a slightly different thing from an alcohol or tobacco license or even a health and safety health and sanitation license.

But with respect to music licenses here in Thailand, they are highly recommended if one runs a venue such as that described. It's pretty ubiquitous. You almost have to have music if you're going to have something like a pub or an entertainment venue or restaurant. I guess it's possible maybe to not have a good restaurant but it's just a very good, very highly recommended idea to go ahead and have a music license if one is going to be running an establishment such as that described.