In short
Playing radio, streaming music or showing TV broadcasts in a shop, bar or waiting room normally requires licences from collecting societies and broadcasters, even if you pay for a consumer subscription at home. Photos, fonts and news need the right to display them commercially too. Open data, public-domain texts, RSS headlines and your own content are free. PlainSignage's 72 widgets were chosen so that nothing on the screen needs a licence you do not already have.
Why a business screen is different from your living room
A screen in a public or commercial space is a 'public performance' in copyright law. Your Spotify, Netflix or cable subscription is a personal licence: it lets you watch at home, not entertain customers. That is why a café that plays the radio pays a yearly fee to a collecting society, and why a sports bar needs a commercial TV contract. The same logic applies to digital signage: whatever appears on the screen must be something you are allowed to show to the public.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. Rules differ per country and change; check with the collecting society or a lawyer for your situation.
Music and radio
Background music, a radio stream or a music video wall almost always needs two licences: one for the composers and publishers (in the Netherlands Buma/Stemra, in Germany GEMA, in France SACEM, in Spain SGAE, in the UK PRS for Music) and one for the performers and record labels (Sena in the Netherlands, GVL in Germany, SPRÉ in France, AGEDI/AIE in Spain, PPL in the UK). Fees depend on floor area and the number of speakers, from roughly a few hundred euros a year for a small shop. Consumer streaming services explicitly forbid commercial use in their terms.
That is why PlainSignage deliberately has no radio, no music streaming and no 'now playing' widget: adding one would put every customer at risk of a claim. Slides can play your own audio files, for which you hold the rights.
- Playing a consumer streaming account in a business breaks its terms of service
- Royalty-free music libraries sell a business licence per venue; keep the invoice
- Live musicians and DJs: the venue, not the artist, is usually the one that pays the society
TV broadcasts and sports
Showing a TV channel on a screen in a business usually needs a commercial subscription from the broadcaster or a distributor, and live sports often need a separate pub licence. Rebroadcasting a channel through your own signage software (capturing it and streaming it to screens) is a distribution act that needs the broadcaster's permission. Digital signage software that offers 'TV in a zone' typically relies on you having a compliant set-top box connected to that screen.
PlainSignage does not embed TV channels. It shows your own content, live data and the YouTube widget, which plays videos through YouTube's own embedded player under YouTube's terms — use it for your own channel or content whose owner allows embedding.
Photos, videos, fonts and icons
A photo found on Google is not free to use: image rights belong to the photographer or agency, and commercial display on a screen counts as use. Use your own photos, buy a licence from a stock library, or use images published under a licence that allows commercial use (Unsplash License, Pexels, CC0). Fonts are software: check that the licence covers commercial display. Icons and emoji have licences too.
The built-in visual library in PlainSignage contains generated backgrounds, curated Unsplash photos (Unsplash License, free for commercial use), open-source fonts and the Lucide icon set (ISC licence). Everything you upload yourself is your responsibility.
- Safe: your own photos, purchased stock with a commercial licence, Unsplash/Pexels/CC0
- Risky: screenshots of other brands, social media photos of other people, logos of companies you do not represent
- Faces of identifiable people may also need a model release or GDPR consent
News, RSS feeds and websites
Headlines and short summaries from an RSS feed that a publisher offers publicly are meant to be shown with a link to the source; that is what the News widget does. Copying full articles, scraping websites or embedding pages that forbid framing is a different matter and can breach both copyright and the site's terms. Embedding a web page you operate yourself is always fine.
Open data and public-domain texts: free by design
A growing amount of useful data is published under open licences. Weather from Open-Meteo, shared-bike availability from GBFS feeds, public holidays from Nager.Date and European electricity prices from Energy-Charts (CC BY 4.0, which is why the electricity price widget prints the attribution) can be shown on any screen. Scripture in translations whose copyright has expired — the King James Version, the Statenvertaling, Luther 1545, Louis Segond 1910, Reina-Valera 1909, Pickthall's Quran translation — is public domain, which is what the verse of the day widget uses; modern translations are copyrighted and need a licence. Quotes and facts in the daily fun widget are short factual items or public-domain quotations.
How PlainSignage keeps every widget licence-free
Every widget in the catalogue passed one question: can a business show this without a licence it does not already hold? Data widgets use open data with attribution where required. Guest interaction runs on your guests' own phones and their own words. Games are generated. Text, prices and photos come from you. There is no music, no radio, no TV, no stock-media store with unclear terms. If a data source changes its licence, the widget is removed rather than kept.
- Weather, sea, pollen, sunrise: Open-Meteo (CC BY 4.0)
- Holidays: Nager.Date (MIT); observance days: factual list
- Bikes: GBFS feeds published by the operators
- Markets and rates: public quote endpoints, shown as figures
- Scripture: public-domain translations only
Country quick reference
Collecting societies you will meet when you do want music or TV in your venue. Names and rules change; this is a starting point, not advice.
- Netherlands: Buma/Stemra (composers) + Sena (performers) for music; TV via a business subscription from your provider
- Germany: GEMA + GVL for music; TV via commercial contracts (e.g. Sky Business, DAZN business)
- France: SACEM + SPRÉ for music; sports bars need commercial TV rights
- Spain: SGAE + AGEDI/AIE for music; commercial TV contracts for bars
- United Kingdom: PRS for Music + PPL (TheMusicLicence); TV licence plus commercial broadcaster contracts
Frequently asked questions
Can I show YouTube videos on my screen?
Through the embedded YouTube player, yes, within YouTube's terms: content that the owner allows embedding for, without downloading or re-streaming it. Music videos in a bar can still trigger performance-rights fees for the music, so check with your collecting society.
Do I need a licence for the weather or news widgets?
No. Weather comes from Open-Meteo under an open licence with attribution, and the news widget shows public RSS headlines with a link to the source, which is how publishers intend feeds to be used.
I pay Spotify Premium. Can I play it in my shop?
No. Consumer streaming services forbid commercial use in their terms, and playing music in a business needs collecting-society licences regardless of the source.
Is a photo from a search engine free to use?
No. Assume every photo is copyrighted unless it comes with a licence that allows commercial use. Use your own photos or a library with clear terms.
Are Bible and Quran texts free to display?
Translations whose copyright has expired are public domain (KJV, Statenvertaling, Luther 1545, Louis Segond 1910, Reina-Valera 1909, Pickthall). Modern translations such as the NIV or the NBV21 are copyrighted and need permission.