Playing background music in your garden centre creates a relaxing, enjoyable atmosphere for customers, but PRS and PPL licences can be costly. The good news is you can play legal, royalty-free music without paying PRS or PPL fees, saving over £3,000 per year.
In this updated 2025 guide, we’ll explain how to use royalty-free music in your garden centre, how much you could save, and how Background Sounds makes it easy to stay compliant while keeping your customers happy.
Why Music Matters in Garden Centres
The right background music helps customers relax, linger longer, and spend more. It enhances mood, boosts brand perception, and creates a calm shopping experience, especially in spaces where customers browse and connect with nature.
But for most garden centres, the cost of PRS and PPL licences means they play nothing, enduring the impact of silence. The cost to play commercial music and pay PRS PPL for a licence is simply too high.
What is Royalty-Free Music (and Is It Legal)?
Royalty-free music is professionally produced music that you can play without paying PRS or PPL for a music licence.
This is because instead of the artists’ royalties being collected by PRS and PPL, they are paid by companies such as Background Sounds through their licensing partner. This means you can use the music legally, with full proof of compliance.
✅ 100% legal for commercial use
✅ No PRS/PPL fees
✅ Certificate of royalty-free compliance provided on request to paid members
✅ Easy online streaming
Royalty-free music gives you all the atmosphere of a commercial playlist, without the legal hassle or cost.
How Much Could Your Garden Centre Save in 2025?
Your potential savings depend on your site size, but even a mid-sized garden centre can save over £3,000 per year.
| Garden Centre Example | PRS/PPL Combined (2025) | Background Sounds Annual | Total Saving |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average size (50,000 sq ft)* | £3,182.56 + VAT | £150 + VAT | £3,032 🙌 |
*Source: Savills, 2023 average garden centre size. PRS/PPL tariff correct as of January 2025.
With Background Sounds, you pay per site, not per square footage, so your savings scale up the larger your business grows.
Prefer flexibility? Choose our monthly subscription (£15 + VAT) and cancel anytime.
What To Look For in a Royalty-Free Music Provider
- Choice and Variety: Choose a supplier that regularly adds new music and has plenty of playlists.
- Easy to Use: Select a delivery method that is intuitive and easy for all staff members to use. This will make set-up and fault-finding far easier.
- Legal Compliance: Ensure your supplier can give you a certificate as PRS PPL will most likely request evidence of where your royalty-free music is coming from.
Background Sounds ticks every box: a diverse, ever-growing library, easy web player, and guaranteed legal coverage.
Best Music for Garden Centres – Playlist Examples
Our royalty-free music library includes over 60 playlists, carefully profiled to create the perfect backdrop for your customers.
Some of our most popular playlists for garden centres include:
Royalty-Free Christmas Music for Garden Centres 🎄
When the festive season arrives, switch seamlessly to royalty-free Christmas playlists that keep spirits high and customers happy, without overdoing it.
Try Retail Festive Mix, which includes one festive track every third song to gently ease your staff and shoppers into the Christmas mood from October onward.
You can find out more about playing our royalty-free Christmas music in your garden centre here in our blogs. Have Yourself a Royalty-Free Christmas and discover what impact playing music has on your sales in our 2025 blog post How Background Music Boosts Sales in the Golden Quarter.
How It Works – The Background Sounds Music Player
Getting started is easy:
- Sign up for your free 7-day trial.
- Log in to our online player on any device — PC, laptop, tablet, or mobile.
- Connect your device to your sound system or Bluetooth speaker.
- Press play and enjoy professionally curated playlists made for commercial use.
Every track is fully licensed for business streaming, meaning you can play music safely, confidently, and without worrying about PRS or PPL fees.
With Background Sounds, all you and your staff need to do is press play.
Music for Garden Centres – Pricing
Pricing That’s Simple, Transparent, and Affordable
Access to our playlist library is on a subscription basis. You receive the same great service and full, unlimited access to our playlist library; the only difference is how you pay.
Monthly Subscription £15 +vat (cancel anytime)
Annual Subscription £150 +vat (saver deal)
If you have a cafe or additional areas you would like to play different music in, let us know. For a small fee, we can add extra music accounts and give you the flexibility you need.
Try It Free for 7 Days
Find out how easy royalty-free music can be. We offer every customer a free 7-day trial of our service. It’s a great risk-free way to try our music in your garden centre and test your audio set-up.
- No card details required
- No hard sell
- Stream instantly in your garden centre
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can I play music in my garden centre without a PRS/PPL licence?
Yes, if you use royalty-free music from a licensed provider like Background Sounds. We can supply all paid members with a certificate to prove that your music is legally sourced.
Q: Is royalty-free music really legal for business use?
Absolutely. Every track in our library is cleared for commercial usage and covered under our agreement with the artists.
Q: How often is new music added?
We add new playlists monthly to keep your sound fresh and seasonally relevant.
Q: Can I use different music in my café or indoor area?
Yes, you can easily add extra accounts for different zones or playlists. Just get in touch with the team to discuss what you need.
Q: How much can I save compared to PRS/PPL?
Most garden centres save around £3,000 per year per site.
About Background Sounds
Background Sounds provides fully licensed, royalty-free background music for businesses across the UK, including garden centres, cafés, shops, salons, and gyms.
Our playlists are designed to set the perfect atmosphere for your customers while keeping your business 100% legal and compliant. With Background Sounds you will play great music, save on licence fees and stay compliant.
Start Your Free Trial → or contact us at support@backgroundsounds.co.uk
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Background Sounds is a specialist provider of royalty-free music. Working with small businesses looking to play music without the need to buy a PRS PPL Music Licence.
The service is offered via online streaming and can be accessed with a subscription. You can find out all you need to know on our home page here.
