Playing music and TV in hotel lobbies, restaurants and pools: what copyright asks

Playing music or a broadcast where guests can hear or see it is a public performance under Law No. 5846, and that right belongs to the author alone. The hotel needs written permission, taken from the author or from the collecting society the author belongs to, by contract, for each area and each use.

A playlist starts at breakfast, a screen above the bar shows a match in the afternoon, a singer sets up by the pool in the evening. Each of those is a separate use of someone else's work, and each one has an owner who may not have been asked. This article explains what the law actually asks of a hotel that plays music or shows television in guest areas, where the permission comes from, and how to keep evidence that survives a change of management. After reading, you will be able to walk your property once and leave with a complete list of uses, gaps and questions for your lawyer.

Why is background music in a hotel a copyright use?#

Because playing a work in a place where the public can hear it is a public performance, and Turkish law gives that right to the author and to nobody else. The question behind any hotel music license in Türkiye is therefore not whether the music is audible to paying guests, but whether the author has permitted this specific use in this specific place.

Law No. 5846 defines public performance broadly: reading, playing, performing or showing a work in public places, directly or through devices that transmit signs, sound or images, according to the consolidated text on the Presidency's legislation database (mevzuat.gov.tr, 2026). A phone on a speaker, a laptop, a satellite feed and a live band all sit inside that sentence. The right is exclusive to the author under Article 24, and no one else may use it without the written permission of the author or of the collecting society the author has joined, within the powers of that society's authorisation.

Owning a copy is not holding the right. A hotel that bought the CD, the download or the subscription owns a copy and a service relationship, not the right to perform the work in public. Whether guests pay to enter is irrelevant: the law covers places open to the public whether entry is paid or free, so a lobby at 07:00 and a ticketed concert by the pool are on the same side of the line. The duty sits with the business that opens the place to the public, not with the guest who requests a song and not with the staff member who presses play.

Silence is not a defence either. Showing images counts as public performance too, so a wall screen with the sound off is still a use of what is on it. The same logic runs through the rest of a hotel's content: photographs, video and text shown to guests each have an owner. See who owns the hotel's photos and what you may show for that side of it.

Which areas and activities need permission?#

Every area a guest can walk into where music or a broadcast is played or shown, plus any live performance the hotel stages or hosts.

Start with the obvious: lobby, corridors, lifts, restaurant, bar, terrace, pool deck, beach, garden, spa, gym and kids club. Each is a place open to the public in the sense the law uses. Then the ones hotels forget: the breakfast room before service, the shuttle, the meeting floor, the wedding lawn, and the screen in reception showing a channel or a sponsor loop.

Live music adds layers. The song has an author, the performance has performers, and the recording has a producer. A single contract may not cover all three, so ask what each one covers. Events run by an outside organizer, a DJ or a wedding planner need a written answer to one question: who obtains the permission for this event, and can they show it before the day.

Changing an area changes the answer. A terrace that becomes a live-music venue in July is a new use, not an extension of the lobby contract. The areas where you already post house rules, such as the pool and the restaurant, are the same areas that need a line in the music register; the discipline is identical to writing dress codes that staff can actually apply.

In every row, the contract must name the area. A contract that covers "the hotel" without naming the pool or the terrace leaves the question open exactly where hotels most often get caught.

Who do you ask for permission, and what should the contract say?#

You ask the author, or the collecting society the author belongs to, and you put the result in a written contract under Article 52 that names the areas and the payments.

Two routes exist. A hotel can license directly from a right holder, or from the collecting society that right holder has joined. A collecting society is usually the practical route to a large repertoire, because a direct licence reaches only the works of the right holder you signed with. A society can only grant what its authorisation covers, so ask which repertoire the contract reaches and what happens when a work falls outside it.

Article 41, as amended by Law No. 5101 in 2004, requires places open to the public to obtain permission by a contract under Article 52 and to make the payments that contract sets, as stated in the consolidated law text (T.C. Cumhurbaşkanlığı Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi, Law No. 5846 (opens in a new tab)). The contract is the evidence, not the invoice alone. Tariffs are set by classifying the place: the region, the nature and size of the venue, and whether the works are an inseparable part of the product or service offered there. That last criterion is why a concert venue and a lobby are priced on different logic.

The contract should name each area, each use, the start and end dates, the payment schedule and who to notify when an area changes. Decide who signs and who keeps the renewal calendar; the gap between the two roles is where lapses happen.

Does a streaming subscription cover a hotel lobby?#

No. A consumer subscription is an agreement between the hotel and a platform about private listening, and it says nothing about the author's exclusive right to perform the work in public.

Two separate permissions are in play. The platform grants access to a catalogue on its terms; the author holds the public performance right. Satisfying the first does not satisfy the second. Read the terms rather than assuming: consumer tiers are written for personal use, and a lobby is not personal use. Where a business tier exists, check what it actually grants before treating it as cover.

Downloaded files, USB sticks, CDs and a paid stock-music library change the delivery, not the right. The question is still whether the author, or the society acting for the author, has given written permission for this place. Ask whether the supplier bundles a licence into its service, and if so, ask for the document and check that it names the hotel, the areas and the period. If a supplier cannot show that document, the duty has not moved. It stays with the hotel that opened the place to the public.

The same ownership question now follows anything generated by AI tools, from images to jingles. Who owns generated text and images, and what you may publish covers that ground.

What about televisions in guest rooms?#

In-room television is a different question from a lobby screen, and the honest answer is that it depends on how the signal reaches the room, so put the question in writing rather than assuming either way.

The rules described here are written for places open to the public. A guest room is not one, so do not read the lobby answer straight across to the room. What matters is the setup: a central system that distributes channels to every room, a hotel-supplied channel package, or a set that simply receives a free broadcast. Each raises a different question about whether the hotel is transmitting something.

Ask the society and your lawyer directly whether your distribution arrangement needs separate cover, and describe the technical setup in the question. A vague question gets a vague answer. Keep the channel list and the contract for whatever feeds the rooms, because if the list changes, the answer may change with it.

A screen in the lobby, the bar or the pool area showing a match is the public case, not the in-room case. Sound off does not remove it, because showing is part of the definition. Where the hotel adds its own channel, a welcome loop or in-house advertising, that content has its own rights and its own owners.

What records should a hotel keep?#

One register that shows, area by area, what is played or shown, under which contract, paid to whom, and until when.

A single page per outlet beats a folder of invoices. Keep the contract itself, the payment evidence and any supplier certificate together, so a question can be answered in one sitting rather than three departments. Record changes of use, not just the original setup: the terrace that started hosting live music, the bar that added a screen, the spa that switched supplier.

Put the renewal dates in the same calendar the hotel uses for other recurring compliance dates, and give finance a copy. Keep the file with the rest of the compliance paperwork, alongside tax and guest-notification records, so that a new manager inherits the answer rather than the problem. If an area is silent, write that down too. A register that shows a quiet lobby is evidence of a decision, not an omission.

What should you ask your lawyer?#

Five specific questions, asked with your register in hand, will settle more than a general conversation about copyright.

First, does our use in this area count as public performance under Article 24, given how the music reaches the guests? Second, does this society's authorisation actually cover the repertoire we play, and what happens to works outside it? Third, does our contract name every area and every use we actually run, including live events and screens? Fourth, does our in-room distribution need separate cover, and what would change that answer? Fifth, for past unlicensed use, and for events run by outside organizers, where does our exposure sit and who should carry it contractually?

This article describes the duty in general terms only. Dates, amounts, penalties and your own case belong with a lawyer or an accountant who can read the current text of the law and your contracts.

What to do next#

Build the one-page register first. Walk every area a guest can enter, write down what is played or shown there, and match each line to a contract or to a gap. That list turns a vague worry into five questions you can put to the collecting society and your lawyer before the next season starts, and it is the document that answers the question if anyone ever asks.