Spotify in the Classroom

[JLH2]

Spotify directs UK schools to www.soundtrackyourbrand.com if they want to play background music, for example in the school canteen or corridors because the licences are for personal use and Spotify don't have the rights in the first place to give you to play to other people.  This makes sense.

However, given that https://copyrightandschools.org/music/play-or-perform-music/ specifically states that "No licence is currently required to play or perform music as part of a lesson.", then as long as the teacher has bought the CD or mp3 or Spotify personal licence to play the music for personal use in the first place this must therefore be OK to use this CD/mp3 or Spotify to play it to the class - as long as it is part of a lesson?

[Billy-J]

Hey @JLH2, thanks for reaching out to the Community!

As laid out in the Terms and Conditions, Spotify is for personal entertainment only and not for commercial use. This means it can’t be broadcasted or played publicly from a business, such as radio stations, bars, restaurants, stores, schools, dance studios, etc. If you want to stream music in a commercial environment, check out our friends at Soundtrack Your Brand.

Hope this helps. 

[JLH2]

Hi Billy-J, you've not read my question - in my question I mention what you've written already - yes Spotify cannot be broadcasted or played publicly.



The law states that teachers are allowed to play music for the curriculum i.e. when teaching. The PRS and PPS also explicitly state on their websites that you must be licenced for non-curriculum.



This implies that teachers can use any source (CD/mp3/amazon/Spotify/apple music) as long as they are using within their teaching. Although I'm comfortable with that it would be helpful if Spotify could confirm they agree - this would be helpful to and reassure a lot of teachers.

[Kennysarmy]

Please can Spotify clarify?

[Victoriaalander]

mever mind I have read this thread

[nmasoner]

We utilize Spotify kids at our school/program as a way to offer the students access to clean music with their academics. We run into issues with the 5 devices at one time limit when more than 5 students want to listen to music. We want to offer our students access to clean music on a broader scale if possible. Would benefit more if we could add an admin account to manage those student accounts to track licensing limits.

[iammarkjohnson]

Yes, that’s right — the rule generally allows teachers to play music as part of a structured lesson without needing an additional licence, since it’s covered under educational use. The key point is that it should directly support teaching, not general entertainment (like background music in corridors or events). I came across similar guidance while creating educational resources for my exam-prep site https://lgspuanhesaplamaa.com .tr/ , where we sometimes include short audio clips for learning purposes — those also fall under the same educational-use exception.