Music licence for gyms and fitness studios: how the cost really works

Gyms and fitness studios almost always need TheMusicLicence, and they’re a special case: music isn’t just background — in classes it’s central to the activity, so PPL and PRS for Music apply specific fitness tariffs alongside any general background music on the gym floor. That makes gym bills more complex, and complexity is where over-charges hide.

What drives the cost for a gym?

• Background music in the gym floor and reception (a general audible-area element).
• Exercise-to-music classes — typically billed by the number of classes and attendees, on dedicated fitness tariffs.
• The mix of the two, plus opening hours and number of sites.
• Whether previously unlicensed use has triggered a first-year higher rate.

What does it typically cost?

Here’s what most gym operators don’t realise: the exercise-to-music classes are charged as a per-class bolt-on, on top of the background-music charge for the floor. For a site running a full weekly timetable, that class element can end up several times larger than the core charge — which makes it, by a distance, the biggest and most volatile number on a fitness invoice. And it’s usually set from an estimate when the account opened, then almost never trued up when the timetable changes. There’s no single headline figure, so we don’t guess — the accurate number comes from your current class schedule and invoice.

One more thing worth knowing: an industry discount (such as ukactive’s) typically only trims the PPL portion of your bill by around 10% — a small slice of the total. If the class count or tariff class underneath is wrong, that discount is simply being applied to the wrong number. That’s where the real money usually is.

Where gyms commonly overpay

• Class numbers or attendance figures overstated, or old timetables never updated.
• Being billed for classes that stopped running, or studios that closed.
• Background-music floor area over-measured.
• A first-year higher rate left on beyond year one.

Send us your invoice and class schedule and we’ll check the fitness and background elements against the official tariffs, for free — and tell you honestly if it’s already correct. No savings, no fee.

• How TheMusicLicence is calculated →
• The 50% higher royalty rate explained →
• How to check your music licence invoice →

This guide is general information, not legal advice, and MLC is an independent consultancy — not affiliated with PPL PRS Ltd, PRS for Music or PPL.