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Does the hall's licence cover my class?

Free and no sign-up. The published wording, the one question only your hall can answer, and the email that asks it.

The checker needs JavaScript. Without it, the questions below are still worth reading, and PPL PRS take quote enquiries on 0800 086 8820.

Step 1 of 7

Where in the UK do you teach?
Where do your classes happen?
What has the venue told you about a music licence?
Who books and controls the room?
What do you play the music from?
How does the class reach people?
What do you teach?

Nothing decided yet

Does the venue's licence reach your class?A hall on the left with a shaded field around it standing for the licence it holds, the class drawn as a small object on the right, and the edge between them drawn as an unresolved dashed boundary carrying a question mark.Does it reach you?The venueYour classDoes the venue's licence reach your class?The same schematic stacked for a narrow column: the hall at the top with a shaded field around it standing for the licence it holds, the class drawn as a small object below it, and the edge between them drawn as an unresolved dashed boundary carrying a question mark.Does it reach you?The venueYour class

The thing that decides this is whether the hall's licence reaches a class run by someone who hires the hall. Answer the questions and you will get the published line that bears on it.

What this page is not

Guidance, not legal advice, and not a licence. We are not PPL PRS, this is not an official check, and nothing here is a step in getting a licence. Confirm your own position with PPL PRS, and with your venue in writing.

It cannot tell you whether a particular hall's licence reaches your class. Only the hall can answer that.

Rules dataset v1.0, checked 24 August 2026

What you'll be asked for a quote

Optional. These figures are for the quote form, but a class length over 60 minutes can change the answer above for a class streamed live online.

What the quote form asks for, in its own words:

Fitness instructors, lessons or classes

"Number of lessons/classes held per year."

"Annual aggregate attendance."

  • Classes a year: ____________
  • Total attendance across the year: ____________

The quote route is at pplprs.co.uk, or 0800 086 8820.

Neither of these is a price. They are the two figures PPL PRS ask for before they can quote.

How the answer is put together

You answer up to seven questions about how you actually teach. The only thing you type is an optional note, and we don't guess at anything. We match your answers against a small versioned dataset, built from PPL PRS's own published pages and from the terms and conditions of TheMusicLicence itself. What you get back is the line that dataset holds, quoted, with the page it came from and the date it was last checked.

The answer comes from published rules. Nothing in it is written from scratch, generated, summarised or reasoned out. If the dataset doesn't cover your combination, we tell you so.

We ask where you teach before we ask what you teach, because the published wording works in that order. A village hall, a leisure centre and a studio of your own are three different situations, and each one gets its own answer. What you teach mostly decides which set of published words applies at all.

You'll never get a clearance here. Nothing on this page says the hall's licence reaches your class, and there's no result it can reach that says a licence is not needed. Instead, you get the published line, the name of the body that decides, and a written question you can send your hall today.

Music licence questions instructors actually ask

Do I need a music licence if the venue has one?

Whether the hall's licence reaches a class you run as a hirer is a separate fact from whether the hall holds one. For someone who already holds TheMusicLicence, its terms limit coverage at third-party premises "to the extent that the owner or controller of such premises does not have a licence covering the Playing or Performance of that Music". That clause limits the holder's own scope. It doesn't decide who has to obtain a licence in the first place. Ask the hall what it holds, and get the answer in writing.

Does the village hall licence cover my class?

Only where the hall meets all three conditions in PPL PRS's community-building checklist: it is available for hire without discrimination, hiring out the venue or rooms is its primary purpose, and a voluntary organisation runs it. If all three hold, their table puts the PRS element on the body operating the building and the PPL element on "the hirer, which in this case will be the individual arranging the class". If they don't all hold, that table can't settle the split at all. Either way, ask the hall to confirm the conditions and what its own licence covers.

Can I use Spotify in my class?

Two things are going on here and most people only think about one. PPL PRS say the popular platforms "are for personal use only", and that agreeing to their terms means "you will only use the service for personal use and not in any commercial business setting". That's the app's contract with you. The copyright licence is a separate question with a separate answer. You can settle one and still be outside the other.

What music can I play without a licence?

PPL PRS put it this way: TheMusicLicence "covers virtually all commercially released music available", and "where you have chosen not to use that music, there are a number of circumstances where you may not need TheMusicLicence". They publish no list of those circumstances, and neither do we. If you think what you play sits outside it, their published route is to ask your supplier for confirmation and forward it to them.

Do I need a music licence for royalty free music?

It depends entirely on what your supplier's own arrangement actually covers, and that is a question for the supplier. PPL PRS are direct about the route: "If you do not think that the music you use is covered by PPL PRS you should ask for confirmation from your supplier. If you then forward the confirmation through to us, we will update our records." We name no library and recommend none.

How much is a music licence for a gym?

We don't print a figure, and the reason is worth a sentence. Tariffs change, and a stale price on a licensing page is exactly the number you'd end up quoting back at the licensor. PPL PRS publish their own worked examples for a fitness instructor and for a dance instructor, each with its own date attached, on their fitness classes page. That is the only place it will ever be current.

Do I need a licence for online classes?

There are two, from two different bodies, and that's what catches people out. On the PPL side there is a temporary home-streaming policy that applies only to instructors who already hold TheMusicLicence, and it carries conditions: sixty minutes, sixty people, live only, and a short list of permitted platforms. On the PRS side there is a separate Digital Music Licence for Fitness and Dance, taken directly from PRS for Music.

Does a premises licence cover music?

They are different things, run by different people, and one never stands in for the other. In England and Wales a premises or entertainment licence comes from your council under the Licensing Act 2003. The government's guidance draws the line expressly for films: entertainment licensing under the Act "is entirely separate from copyright authorisation to show films in public". Music rights sit under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act instead, so a council permission is not permission from the music rightsholders. Scotland and Northern Ireland run separate regimes, and we don't describe them.

Who is PPL and PRS for Music?

Two collecting societies with one joint front door. PPL "represents record companies and performers for the use of recorded music". PRS for Music "represents songwriters, composers and music publishers for the use of musical compositions and lyrics". They set up PPL PRS Ltd in 2018 so that a business buys one licence instead of two. It's also why almost everything here splits into a PPL half and a PRS half.

What does playing music 'in public' mean?

Broader than most people expect. PPL PRS's wording is that under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 permission is needed to play or perform music in public, and that this "includes any presentation of music outside of a domestic setting". A class in a hired hall is outside a domestic setting. So is a class of six. So is music played only for staff.

Music licences for fitness and dance classes: the two halves nobody mentions

Almost every argument about music in classes assumes there's one licence. There are two halves inside it, and they can belong to two different people.

PPL covers the recording. PRS for Music covers the song underneath it. Since 2018 they've sold the pair as TheMusicLicence through a joint company, which is convenient right up to the moment somebody hires a hall. Then the halves can come apart. On PPL PRS's own community buildings page, the row for a fitness or dance class held by a hirer puts the PRS element on the organisation running the building and the PPL element on the instructor who booked the room. That row applies only where the building meets their checklist.

That's why "we're all covered" isn't an answer, however kindly it was meant. If the hall fits all three conditions, their table leaves the PPL element with the hirer. If it doesn't, the table can't settle the split at all. Either way, ask the hall what its own licence actually covers.

The rest works the same way. A personal streaming subscription is a contract with an app. It isn't permission from a songwriter, and the licence's own terms put the legality of your source squarely on you. An online class is a separate question, with a different licence from a different body. And a premises licence from the council is a different animal entirely.

None of that is difficult once somebody separates it out. It's only difficult because nobody does.

Want to list your classes with us?

Someone who has checked their licensing position and keeps the hall's answer on file is running a properly set-up class. A parent choosing a ballet school can't see that from the outside. Listing with us is free, enquiries are free, and there's no referral fee. We put that in writing ourselves.

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The categories where most of this comes up: Dance classes, Ballet, Yoga, Pilates, Personal training.

Two more, same idea

Keep this one

This question tends to come back when you take on a new venue, start a new online class or get a new letter. Bookmark the page, or print the record and file it with your insurance certificate.

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