What changes on 1 December 2026
The date to remember is 1 December 2026. On 11 August 2026 the Ministry of Economy and Tourism published a guide to the collective management of music rights, and from 1 December venues that play music to the public need a licence. The summary below follows Reed Smith's analysis of the ministry guide.
The licence applies to:
- restaurants and cafés;
- hotels;
- shopping malls;
- gyms and fitness studios;
- TV and radio.
Two collective management organisations issue the licence: the Emirates Music Rights Association and Music Nation. You pay them, and they distribute the money to authors, performers and labels.
How much venues pay
Published tariffs, per Reed Smith:
| Venue type | Annual fee |
|---|---|
| Café or restaurant | AED 1,500 to 6,000 |
| Café or restaurant with a DJ | AED 2,500 to 8,000 |
| Hotel, 4 or 5 star | AED 150 per room up to 50 rooms, then fixed bands, capped at AED 25,000 |
| Large mall | up to AED 50,000 |
The ranges hide a simple seat ladder. Here it is for restaurants and cafés, as reported by Khaleej Times and 4AI from Annex 1 of the guide:
| Seats | Without DJ, AED/year | With DJ, AED/year |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 50 | 1,500 | 2,500 |
| 51–100 | 2,700 | 3,500 |
| 101–200 | 4,800 | 6,500 |
| Over 200 | 4,800 + 20 per extra seat, max 6,000 | 6,500 + 20 per extra seat, max 8,000 |
So a 40-seat café pays AED 1,500, an 80-seat restaurant AED 2,700, and the same restaurant with a resident DJ AED 3,500. Count every seat, terrace included: the band is set by capacity, not by how full you are. Sources differ on whether the per-seat add-on starts at 200 or 201 seats; ask the licensing body.
The guide gives ranges, so your exact fee depends on how the licensing body classifies your venue. Ask both organisations for a quote in writing before December and keep the licence where staff can show it during an inspection.
Hotels are not billed per room all the way up. For 4 and 5 star hotels the per-room rate of AED 150 applies only up to 50 rooms; above that the guide sets fixed fees: AED 15,000 for 51–100 rooms, AED 18,000 for 101–200 and AED 25,000 above 200, per 4AI's reading of the annex. A 40-room boutique hotel pays 40 × 150 = AED 6,000; a 120-room hotel pays the flat AED 18,000; a 350-room resort pays AED 25,000.
Who is exempt
The guide exempts:
- educational institutions;
- government bodies;
- national celebrations;
- private non-commercial events.
Our reading: a family wedding at home is private and non-commercial, a ticketed party in a lounge is not. If the event sells anything, plan for the licence and confirm with the licensing body.
What happens if you play music without a licence
The tariff is new, but the offence is not. Federal Decree-Law 38/2021 on copyright already makes public use of a work without the author's permission a crime (UAE Legislation, text of Articles 39 and 40 via ADDED):
| Situation | Penalty under Decree-Law 38/2021 |
|---|---|
| First offence | at least 2 months in prison and/or AED 10,000 to 100,000 |
| How the fine scales | multiplied by the number of works used |
| Repeat offence | at least 6 months in prison and AED 100,000 to 500,000 |
The multiplier matters for a venue. A playlist holds dozens of tracks, and the law counts each one as a separate work.
To see what that means in practice, take the law at face value. A café that plays 20 tracks without permission faces a minimum of 20 × AED 10,000 = AED 200,000 in fines on a first offence, and a maximum of 20 × AED 100,000 = AED 2,000,000. This is arithmetic on the statute, not a reported case: we have not seen a published UAE court decision against a restaurant for background music. Set against an annual licence of AED 1,500 to 6,000, the comparison is short.
Questions to ask the licensing body
- Which tariff class does my venue fall into, and why?
- Does one licence cover several outlets under the same trade licence, or does each outlet pay?
- Is a terrace or shisha lounge counted separately from the main dining room?
- Does a guest DJ night move us into the DJ tariff for the whole year?
- What document should staff show during an inspection?
Get the answers in writing. The ministry guide is new, and both organisations will refine how they apply it.
The venue licence does not cover your reels
This is where restaurants get caught. The public performance licence covers music played in your venue: speakers in the dining room, the DJ set on Friday. It does not cover music inside a video you post. Our guide to music in reels and ads covers which libraries are cleared for business accounts.
Putting a track into a reel, TikTok or ad is called synchronisation, and it is a separate right. According to an industry breakdown by 4AI, which compares the licences of Artlist, Epidemic Sound and Meta:
- sync rights come from the rights holder directly or from a stock music library whose licence covers commercial use;
- Meta's Sound Collection is cleared only for use on Meta's platforms (Instagram, Facebook), so the same video with the same track on your website or YouTube is not covered;
- the new venue licence adds nothing here.
4AI is an agency source, not an official one, so read your library's licence terms yourself. Those terms decide whether you can use a track in a paid ad or only in organic posts.
What to check in a music library licence
Before you pick a library for your restaurant's reels, read its licence for four things:
- Commercial use. Does the plan allow promoting a business, or only personal channels?
- Paid ads. Some plans allow organic posts but not boosted posts or ad campaigns.
- Platforms. Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, your website, a screen in the venue: check each one you use.
- What happens when you cancel. Ask whether videos published during the subscription stay covered after it ends.
If the agency that shoots your content picks the music, ask which library it uses and whose name the licence is in.
A common trap
A reel filmed in your restaurant often catches whatever is playing on the speakers. Even if your venue holds the public performance licence from December, that background track inside your reel is a sync use. The safer workflow:
- Record the video with the venue music off or low.
- Add licensed music in the edit.
- Keep the licence certificate or download receipt for every track you use in ads.
What to do before December
- List every place you play music: dining room, terrace, lounge, gym floor, lobby. Note whether you have a DJ.
- Contact the Emirates Music Rights Association and Music Nation for a written quote that names your tariff class.
- Budget AED 1,500 to 8,000 for a single café or restaurant, or the per-room rate for a hotel.
- Check your content workflow. Who chooses the music in your reels? Is it from a library with a commercial licence? Do you run the same video as a paid ad?
- Train staff to show the licence on request.
Gyms deserve a note. Classes run to music, so a fitness studio sits squarely in scope, and its marketing videos usually feature the same tracks. Both rights need sorting.
Music is one of several venue rules
Restaurants in the UAE work under a few other advertising rules worth knowing alongside this one:
- The Media Law's executive regulation bans advertising alcohol, tobacco and smoking, including shisha; see our guide to alcohol, shisha and tobacco advertising.
- Food advertising is one of the sectors that may need approval from the relevant authority before publication; influencers promoting your venue need an NMA Advertiser Permit.
- Media filming in Dubai falls under the DFTC (now the [Dubai Films and Games Commission) permit system](/journal/dubai-filming-permit-dftc/).
If you want to know what a shoot costs in the first place, see how much video production costs in Dubai.
