Music for Hair Salons and Barbershops

Plenty of salon owners assume a small shop does not need a music license. There is a real exemption in the Copyright Act, but it is narrow: it covers broadcast radio and TV in businesses under 2,000 gross square feet, or larger ones within limits on speakers and screens. It does not cover Spotify, YouTube, CDs or a stylist's playlist, and Spotify's own support pages name salons among the businesses where its consumer app cannot be played.

If WeavyAudio is the only music in your salon, you do not have to work out whether your setup fits an exemption. You play an original catalog licensed for public playback at your salon, you have a PDF license certificate, and there are no PRO royalties due on WeavyAudio music. In booth-rental and chair-rental salons, one licensed house source and a rule that personal phones stay off the house speakers is the simplest setup; our guide to music for hair salons and spas explains why the business, not each stylist, normally holds the license.

A salon is a tough room for sound: dryers and clippers drown out everything nearby, while at the shampoo bowl the client wants to relax. Rather than turning the music up to beat the dryers, spread the speakers evenly and play softer. Conversation in the chair is half the service; the music should support it, not compete with it.

The biggest win is a wide rotation, and with more than 800 hours of music across dozens of genres there is room for one. Your team hears the music all day, so a shared skip list and a fresh mix every few weeks are the basics. Lyrics are shown on every track page, which makes it easy to keep explicit songs away from clients with kids.

A starting point you can tune to your own clients, built from pop, indie, hip-hop, soul, afrobeats and the upbeat, mellow and calm moods:

• Hair salon

  pop, indie and upbeat songs through the day, mellow tracks toward closing.

• Barbershop

  hip-hop, soul and confident tracks with some swagger, at a level that leaves room for conversation.

• Salons with a groove-loving crowd

  afrobeats and afro house, lively without being pushy.

• Nail salons and beauty studios

  dreamy and calm tracks at a low volume, and the quietest corners of the catalog, such as spa and ambient, in treatment rooms.