Guides
Guides for dental office music
Plain answers for owners and office managers of independent US dental practices, grouped by the question you are trying to answer.
These guides answer the questions dental office managers ask about background music: what US copyright law and the performing rights organizations say about music licenses, what to do about a letter from ASCAP, BMI, SESAC or GMR, what the terms of Spotify and other streaming services say, how radio, TV and hold music fit in, what to play in each room, how to set up devices and speakers, and what business music costs. eleMusic wrote them for independent US dental practices; the guide to business music licenses also covers clinics, spas, hotels, schools and offices, and a separate guide covers K-12 school licenses. Each guide shows the date it was last reviewed and lists its sources.
Licensing and PRO letters
What do music licenses and PRO letters mean for a practice?
New to the topic? Start with the music license guide. If a letter has already arrived, go straight to the PRO letter guide. These guides explain and quote the law and the organizations' own pages. They do not decide what your practice needs; that is a question for your own lawyer.
Start here
Do dental offices need a music license?
What public performance means under US copyright law, who ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR are, what to ask any business music service, and the questions to take to your attorney.
Clinics, spas, hotels, schools
Do you need a license to play music in your business?
For clinics, spas, acupuncture clinics, hotels, schools and offices: the license names ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR use for your kind of business, if any, what Spotify's terms say, and what to ask a provider and your attorney.
K-12 schools
K-12 school music licenses: what the NFHS program covers
What the NFHS pages for the BMI, GMR and AllTrack school licenses list, 17 U.S.C. 110(1) and 110(4) in the law's own words, and the questions for counsel and the business office.
A letter arrived
Your practice got a letter from ASCAP, BMI, SESAC or GMR
Don't ignore it. What these letters usually ask for, what to gather about every source of audio in the practice, what to read before anyone signs or pays, and what to ask a lawyer.
Performing rights organizations
ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR: what a dental office should know
Who these four US performing rights organizations are, what each one says on its own site about licensing businesses, and the questions to ask each of them.
Reading a license
Royalty-free, direct-licensed and original music, explained
What the label royalty-free usually means in a business music license, how direct licensing and original catalogs differ, and what to ask any provider before you sign.
Using eleMusic already? The certificate page explains what your location's certificate covers, and what it does not.
eleMusic is PRO-free: it never registers its tracks with ASCAP, BMI, SESAC or GMR, so there is no performing rights fee for the music you play through eleMusic. Radio, TV, music on hold and any other music you play still need their own licenses. We cannot control or verify what others register, and we do not promise that no PRO or other person will contact you or make a claim. The certificate describes our catalog and your subscription; it does not determine your practice's legal obligations. The certificate is not a license from any performing rights organization and is not legal advice.
ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR are trademarks of their respective owners. eleMusic is not affiliated with or endorsed by any performing rights organization.
Streaming, radio and TV
Can a dental office play Spotify, the radio or the TV?
Personal streaming accounts are licensed for personal, non-commercial use, which is why business music services exist. These four guides put each company's own terms, and the federal statute on radio and TV in businesses, in front of you word for word, with the date each one was read.
Spotify
Can a dental office play Spotify?
Spotify's own consumer terms and support pages on business and commercial use, quoted and dated, and the kinds of services built for businesses instead.
Pandora, Apple Music, YouTube, SiriusXM, Amazon Music
Personal streaming and satellite plans in a dental office
A dated table of what each service's own consumer terms say about personal and business use, quoted word for word, and, where their own pages say so, the business offerings they point to.
Radio
Can you play the radio in a dental office?
What the federal exemption for radio and TV in businesses says, quoted from the statute, what its text does not address, and the questions to ask your attorney about it.
TV, video and the phones
TV, videos and hold music in a dental office: whose terms apply
Waiting room TV, shows or movies in treatment rooms, and music on hold each raise their own permission questions. Who to ask, and what an eleMusic plan does not cover.
An eleMusic plan lets your practice play eleMusic as background music inside its own US location. Music on hold, phone systems and video are not included: Section 9.2 of the Terms of Service lists what the license does not include.
Choosing music for each room
What should each room in a dental office play?
The waiting room, the front desk and the chair do different jobs, and each device in an eleMusic practice picks its own station. These guides work room by room and specialty by specialty, describe the music in plain terms, and suggest stations you can preview before you choose.
Every room
How to plan a dental office playlist, room by room
A first and an alternate pick for the front desk, the chair, the consult room, the staff areas and the hallways, when a station starts over, and a weekly routine.
Waiting room
What to play in a dental waiting room
Instrumental or vocals, tempo, volume next to conversation, no ads or DJs, and which stations suit check-in and longer waits.
Treatment rooms
Music for the operatory and the hygiene chair
Chairside music with no vocals at a level the team sets on the device, a station per room, and when a patient's own headphones may fit better.
Specialty practices
Music for specialty dental practices
Pediatric dentistry, orthodontics, and oral surgery, endodontics and periodontics: what fits family waiting rooms, open bays, consult rooms and longer appointments.
To hear a 30 second preview of each of the 8 stations, with the room the player suggests for each one, see the stations page.
Setup and privacy
How do you set up music, and what about the front desk?
The player runs in a web browser on a tablet or laptop connected to the room's speakers, and it can cast to the room's TV. A device is one stream: a tablet feeding the ceiling speakers in several rooms counts once. The eleMusic player never asks for patient information.
Devices and speakers
How to set up music in a dental office
Which devices work, how one tablet can feed the speakers in several rooms, connecting or casting to speakers, keeping a room's screen awake, and a room-by-room checklist.
Front desk
Background music, sound masking and front desk privacy
Why background music does not make front desk conversations private, how it differs from an engineered sound masking system, and who decides your practice's privacy steps.
For eleMusic itself, step by step, read how it works.
Costs, research and comparisons
What does music cost, and what does the research say?
Prices change, so every price these guides quote from another service carries the date it was read and the unit it counts: a zone, a location or a device. Those units are not the same thing: one office is one location, but it can be several zones or several devices, depending on the service.
Cost
What music for a dental office costs
Dated list prices for business music services, what each one counts as a unit, and worked examples for a 1-device office and a 5-device office.
Research
Music and dental anxiety: what the research says
A plain summary of peer-reviewed trials and meta-analyses: what they measured, what they found and where the evidence is limited, with authors, journals and links.
Comparisons
Background music services for dental offices, compared
Business music services side by side, dated: the unit each prices by, list price and term, trial, and each vendor's own words about licensing. eleMusic wrote it and is one of the services compared.
The research guide summarizes studies as research. eleMusic makes no health claims about its music (Terms, Section 12.3). eleMusic's own plans and prices are on the pricing page.
About these guides
Who writes these guides?
eleMusic does. We run a background music subscription for independent US dental practices, so we have a stake in these topics. Where our own service comes up, the page says so, and the cost guide and the comparison list eleMusic next to the other services.
If something in a guide is out of date or wrong, please tell us at hello@elemusic.fm.
How they are written
- Statutes, performing rights organizations and other companies are quoted word for word, linked and dated.
- Every price quoted from another service carries the date it was read and the unit it counts.
- Each guide shows when it was last reviewed.
- The licensing guides explain and quote. They do not decide whether your practice needs a license or qualifies for an exemption, and they are not legal advice.
Hear it in your own rooms.
Eight instrumental stations and one access code, on a tablet or laptop in each room, or cast to your TV. From $15 a month for one device; Practice covers up to 5 devices for $24.
New locations start with a 14-day trial. A card is required and nothing is due at checkout. A reminder goes to the billing email before the trial ends, and you can cancel in Manage billing or by emailing hello@elemusic.fm. Unless you cancel before the trial ends, the card is charged the plan price when it ends. See the Terms of Service and the Refund and Cancellation Policy.