Last updated 2026-07-26
TL;DR
An ASCAP license for a bar usually costs a few hundred to a few thousand dollars annually, based on occupancy, whether you have live music or DJs, and how often you play music. ASCAP sets rates by venue type and capacity rather than a flat fee, and most bars need ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC licenses together to cover the full catalog of songwriters.
How much is an ASCAP license for a bar?
| Occupancy/capacity | Higher legal capacity generally means a higher tier | |
|---|---|---|
| Live music vs. recorded only | Live music and karaoke usually cost more than background music alone | |
| Days per week with music | More days of music use raises the fee | |
| Cover charge or dancing | Venues charging a cover or allowing dancing may fall into a different rate category | |
| Number of PROs needed | ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and sometimes GMR fees stack; budget for more than one | This table reflects the general factors ASCAP has described publicly [1], not a locked pricing chart. Treat any number you see online, including in this article, as a planning range, not a quote. |
There's no single number here, and anyone who quotes you one flat price without asking about your venue is guessing. ASCAP prices its bar and restaurant licenses using a formula built around occupancy (how many people your space legally holds), whether you offer live music, karaoke, DJs, or just recorded background music over speakers, and how many days a week you use music. Most small bars land somewhere in the low hundreds to low thousands of dollars per year, but a large venue with nightly live bands and a capacity over a few hundred people pays considerably more. ASCAP publishes general licensing guidance for restaurants, bars, and similar establishments through its "ASCAP License Center," but it doesn't post a public rate card with exact dollar figures for every venue type online. You request a quote directly, and the number comes back based on the factors above [1]. If you want an actual figure for your specific bar, the only reliable path is to call ASCAP or fill out their online request and let them run your venue's numbers. Here's the part a lot of new owners miss: ASCAP is only one of the performing rights organizations (PROs) you may need. BMI and SESAC each license different songwriters and publishers, and GMR (Global Music Rights) covers a smaller but growing catalog of major artists. If you play recorded music, live bands, or a jukebox that touches copyrighted songs from any of these catalogs, you generally need a license from each PRO whose catalog you use, more than one. | Factor | How it affects your ASCAP fee |
Why does a bar need a music license at all?
Copyright law gives songwriters and publishers the exclusive right to authorize public performances of their music, and a bar playing a song over speakers, through a live band, or via a jukebox counts as a public performance under federal law. The U.S. Copyright Office is direct about this: playing music in a business open to the public, even from a personal radio or streaming account, generally requires permission from the rights holder unless a specific exemption applies [2]. That's what PROs exist to solve. ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and GMR each represent thousands of songwriters and publishers, and instead of a bar negotiating a license with every songwriter whose music might get played, the bar buys a blanket license from each PRO covering their whole catalog. It's efficient for everyone, but it does mean paying more than one organization if you want legal coverage across the range of music your bartenders, DJs, or bands actually play. There's a specific exception worth knowing: the Fairness in Music Licensing Act of 1998 (part of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 110(5)) exempts certain smaller food service and drinking establishments from needing a license when they play music from a normal home-style radio or TV, under specific size and equipment limits [3]. If your bar exceeds those size thresholds, or you're playing music through a dedicated sound system beyond what the exemption allows, the exemption likely doesn't apply and you need a license. Given how narrow and technical this exemption is, most bars with any kind of real sound system, live music, or DJ setup end up needing licenses anyway.
Can you serve alcohol without a liquor license?
No. Selling or serving alcoholic beverages without the required state and, often, local license is illegal everywhere in the United States, and it's treated separately from music licensing entirely. Every state alcoholic beverage control (ABC) agency requires some form of on-premise license before a bar, restaurant, or club can pour a drink for a paying customer, and operating without one risks fines, forced closure, and in some states criminal charges against the owner [4]. This matters for your opening timeline because liquor licensing and music licensing run on completely separate tracks with separate agencies. Your state ABC authority handles the liquor license. ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC handle music. You need both sorted before opening night, and neither approval speeds up the other. If you're mapping out your full pre-opening checklist working backward from your target open date, our State Liquor License Roadmap walks through the liquor licensing side specifically, since that process usually takes far longer and involves far more state paperwork than getting your music licenses sorted.
How much is a liquor license?
This is the question most new bar and restaurant owners actually need answered, and the honest answer is: it depends entirely on your state, your license type, and in many places, whether you're buying a license through a capped quota system. Liquor license costs across the U.S. range from a few hundred dollars in some states for a basic beer and wine license up to well over $100,000 in quota-controlled markets like parts of California or New York, where the number of licenses is capped and owners buy existing licenses on a secondary market instead of applying fresh to the state [5]. States fall into two broad models. Some states issue licenses directly for a set application and issuance fee with no cap on how many exist (common in states like Texas and many Midwestern states). Others cap the total number of on-premise licenses per county or population threshold, which means if the quota is full, you can't get a new one from the state at all, you have to buy one from an existing holder, often at a steep premium [5]. Because of this range, confirm the actual fee schedule with your specific state ABC authority before you budget anything. Every state publishes its own fee tables, and they change. Related reading on how license categories differ: see our overview on liquor licenses and license type basics on bar licensing generally.
How much is a liquor license in Florida?
Florida licenses on-premise alcohol sales through a quota system tied to county population for full liquor (spirits, beer, and wine) licenses, known as quota licenses, while beer and wine only licenses are generally not quota-restricted and cost less to obtain directly from the state [6]. Florida's Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (ABT) administers this system, and quota license availability is recalculated periodically based on county population growth, with new licenses sometimes issued through a public drawing when population growth creates additional slots [6]. Because Florida's quota licenses are capped per county, in counties where the quota is full, the only way to get one is to buy an existing license from a current holder, and prices for those on the open market can run from the tens of thousands of dollars into six figures depending on the county and demand, similar to the secondary-market dynamic in other quota states [5]. Beer and wine licenses, by contrast, are issued more directly by the state without the same population cap, at a lower cost set by ABT's published fee schedule. If you're opening in Florida, confirm current quota status and fees directly with the Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, since population-based recalculations and drawing schedules change over time [6]. If you're weighing Florida against other states for a new concept, our state-by-state material on Florida bar licensing basics is a useful starting point, alongside general bares resources if you're comparing bar formats.
How can I get a liquor license, step by step?
The general process is similar across states even though the specific forms and fees differ. First, confirm your license type: beer and wine only, full liquor, brewpub, catering, and so on, since each has different requirements and costs. Second, check whether your state uses a quota system for your license type and county; if it's quota-controlled and full, you'll be looking at a license transfer from an existing holder rather than a fresh application to the state. Third, gather your supporting documents. Most states want your signed lease or proof of location, business formation paperwork, personal and business financial disclosures, sometimes fingerprints and background checks for owners, and local zoning or health department sign-off before the state will even process your application. Fourth, submit to your state ABC authority (names vary: Alcoholic Beverage Control, Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, Liquor Control Commission, etc.) and pay the application fee, which is separate from the license issuance fee in many states. Fifth, budget real time for this. Processing timelines vary widely by state and by how complete your application is on first submission, and many states also require local government notice periods or public comment windows before final approval. This is exactly the kind of multi-step, multi-agency process where working backward from your opening date matters, because a lease signed with a 60-day buildout timeline doesn't mean your license clears in 60 days too. Confirm current processing timelines directly with your state ABC authority rather than relying on general online guidance, since these shift with staffing and application volume.
How do I obtain a liquor license (or licence) if I'm not sure where to start?
Start with your state ABC authority's website, not a general search, since license categories, quota status, and fees are entirely state-specific and change over time. Every state has an agency responsible for alcohol licensing, and most publish downloadable applications, fee schedules, and contact information for questions specific to your county or municipality. If your state uses quota licenses and you're in a capped county, your path usually runs through a licensed attorney or broker who handles license transfers, since you're negotiating a purchase from a private seller rather than applying fresh to the state. If your state doesn't cap licenses for your category, you can often apply directly, though local zoning approval and health permits still have to line up before the state issues anything. Either way, don't wait until your buildout is finished to start this process. License applications, especially anything involving a quota transfer, local notice periods, or background checks on multiple owners, routinely take longer than restaurant and bar owners expect. If you already have a signed lease and a target opening date, our $199 State Liquor License Roadmap is built specifically to back-plan the licensing timeline from your open date, so you know what has to happen by which week rather than discovering a bottleneck two weeks before your grand opening.
How to get a bartending license, and is that different from a liquor license?
Yes, these are completely different things. A bartending license (sometimes called an alcohol server permit, responsible beverage service certification, or TIPS/ServSafe certification depending on the state and program) certifies an individual bartender or server on responsible alcohol service. A liquor license, by contrast, is issued to the business itself, authorizing that specific location to sell alcohol. Requirements for individual bartender certification vary by state; some states mandate it for anyone serving alcohol, some leave it optional but insurance companies or local ordinances effectively require it, and some have no state requirement at all. Where required, the process typically involves an online or in-person course covering topics like checking IDs, recognizing signs of intoxication, and understanding liability, followed by a short exam, with certifications often valid for a set number of years before renewal. Check your specific state ABC authority or state health department page for whether server certification is mandatory in your state and which training providers are state-approved, since using a non-approved course can mean redoing the training. This certification requirement sits entirely separate from your business's liquor license application, and getting your staff certified doesn't substitute for the business-level license your bar itself needs to operate.
Can anyone take the bar exam?
This question comes up in liquor licensing searches because "bar" is ambiguous online, but the bar exam refers to the legal licensing test for practicing attorneys, not anything related to running a bar or restaurant. Eligibility to sit for a state bar exam generally requires graduating from an American Bar Association-accredited law school (or meeting a specific state's alternative requirements, which some states allow) and passing character and fitness review, with rules set individually by each state's bar admission authority. If you landed here looking for information on the legal profession's bar exam rather than liquor licensing, your state's bar admission office or state supreme court website is the authoritative source, not a hospitality or licensing site. If you're researching this because you're a lawyer looking into liquor licensing on the side, or checking on an attorney handling your license transfer, our California bar and Florida bar pages cover state-specific alcohol licensing (not attorney admission), and a general Florida bar member search type of lookup for attorney credentials would run through your state bar association's official site, not ours.
What does an ASCAP license actually cover, versus BMI and SESAC?
ASCAP represents its own roster of songwriter, composer, and publisher members and licenses public performance rights to that specific catalog. BMI represents a different (also very large) roster, and SESAC and GMR each represent smaller, more selective catalogs, often including specific high-profile artists who license exclusively through them. Because these catalogs don't fully overlap, a bar playing a broad mix of music (radio hits, classic rock, country, whatever the crowd wants) will likely play songs controlled by more than one PRO in a single night. That's the practical reason bars often end up paying ASCAP, BMI, and sometimes SESAC and GMR too, rather than picking just one. There's no single "universal" music license that covers every songwriter in the country; the U.S. performance rights system runs on these separate competing organizations by design. If a bar only ever plays music from one exclusive source (say, a single licensed streaming service specifically marketed and licensed for business use, which some background-music vendors offer as an all-in-one package), that can sometimes simplify or reduce the number of separate PRO licenses needed, since the vendor may have already secured the underlying rights. Ask any business-music vendor directly whether their service includes performance rights licensing or whether you still need your own ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC accounts on top of their subscription fee, since this varies by provider and isn't automatic.
What happens if a bar plays music without the right licenses?
PROs actively monitor venues, and unlicensed public performance of copyrighted music is copyright infringement under federal law, exposing a bar to statutory damages that can run well beyond what years of licensing fees would have cost. Courts have awarded statutory damages under the Copyright Act ranging from $750 to $30,000 per infringed work for ordinary infringement, and up to $150,000 per work where infringement is found willful, at the court's discretion (17 U.S.C. § 504(c)) . In practice, ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC representatives (or their contracted investigators) do visit unlicensed venues, document what's playing, and follow up with licensing offers before escalating to litigation. Settlements and lawsuits over unlicensed music use in bars and restaurants are common enough that industry press covers them regularly, and PROs publicize enforcement actions specifically to encourage voluntary licensing. Paying for a license upfront is close to always cheaper than the legal and reputational cost of getting caught without one. If you're budgeting for a new bar opening, treat your PRO licensing fees the same way you treat your liquor license and your insurance: a fixed cost of doing business, not an optional add-on you can skip until someone notices.
How should a new bar budget for licensing costs overall?
| State liquor license (non-quota state) | Hundreds to low thousands of dollars, per your state ABC fee schedule [5] | |
|---|---|---|
| State liquor license (quota state, secondary market) | Tens of thousands to well over $100,000 depending on county and demand [5] | |
| ASCAP license (typical bar) | Low hundreds to low thousands annually, based on capacity and music use [1] | |
| BMI, SESAC, GMR licenses | Similar structure, often quoted alongside or shortly after your ASCAP quote | |
| Bartender/server certification per employee | Confirm with your state ABC authority or state-approved training provider | Every figure in that table needs to be confirmed against the current fee schedule for your specific state and situation before you finalize a budget; these ranges are for planning purposes, not a quote you can use to write a check. |
Line up your costs by category rather than treating "getting licensed" as one lump expense. Your state liquor license (application fee, issuance fee, and possibly a quota-transfer purchase price) is almost always the largest and slowest-moving cost. Your local business license and health permits come next, usually smaller and faster. Your ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC music licenses are a smaller recurring annual cost, but one that's easy to forget until a PRO representative shows up asking questions. Here's a rough order-of-magnitude comparison, understanding that liquor license figures vary enormously by state and quota status while PRO fees vary by venue size: | Cost category | Typical range (confirm current figures with the relevant authority) |
Frequently asked questions
How much is a liquor license?
It ranges from a few hundred dollars in non-quota states with a straightforward application fee, up to $100,000 or more in quota-controlled states like California or New York where you're buying an existing license on the secondary market. Confirm the specific fee schedule and quota status with your state ABC authority before budgeting, since this varies enormously by state, county, and license type.
How to get a bartending license?
Most states offer or require an alcohol server certification course (often called TIPS, ServSafe Alcohol, or a state-specific program) covering ID checks, intoxication signs, and liability. You complete an online or in-person course, pass a short exam, and get a certificate valid for a set number of years. Check your state ABC authority's site for whether it's mandatory and which providers are state-approved.
How can I get a liquor license?
Confirm your license type and whether your state uses a quota system for it, gather your lease, business formation documents, and owner background information, then apply through your state ABC authority. If your county's quota is full, you'll need to purchase an existing license through a transfer instead of applying fresh. Start early since processing and local notice periods often run long.
How to get a liquor license as a first-time bar owner?
Start with your signed lease and business entity paperwork, then check your state ABC authority's website for your specific license category and current fee schedule. Apply well before your target opening date, since background checks, local zoning sign-off, and any required public notice periods commonly extend the timeline beyond what new owners expect.
How to obtain a liquor license if my state uses a quota system?
If your county's quota for your license type is full, the state won't issue a new one; you need to buy an existing license from a current holder, typically through an attorney or licensed broker who handles transfers. Prices vary widely by county and demand. Confirm current quota status directly with your state ABC authority before committing to a location.
Can anyone take the bar exam?
Generally no. Most states require graduation from an ABA-accredited law school (or meeting a specific alternative pathway some states allow) plus passing a character and fitness review before you can sit for the bar exam. Eligibility rules are set individually by each state's bar admission authority, so check your specific state's requirements directly.
How to obtain a liquor licence (outside the US)?
Outside the U.S., alcohol licensing runs through each country's or region's own regulatory body rather than a U.S. state ABC authority, so the process, fees, and categories differ entirely. If you're opening outside the U.S., check your national or regional licensing authority's official site rather than U.S.-focused guidance, since U.S. state rules don't apply.
How much is a liquor license in Florida?
Florida's quota liquor licenses (for full spirits sales) are capped by county population, and where the quota is full, licenses trade on the secondary market for prices that can run into the tens of thousands to six figures. Beer and wine only licenses are generally not quota-capped and cost less, issued more directly by Florida's Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco.
How much is a liquor licence in Florida if I want beer and wine only?
Beer and wine only licenses in Florida are generally not subject to the same population-based quota system as full liquor licenses, and cost is set by the state's published fee schedule rather than secondary-market pricing. Confirm the current fee directly with Florida's Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, since fee schedules are updated periodically.
Can you serve alcohol without a liquor license?
No. Every U.S. state requires a liquor license before a business can legally sell or serve alcoholic beverages to the public, and operating without one risks fines, forced closure, and potential criminal liability for the owner. This is separate from music licensing; you need both a liquor license and, if you play music, the relevant PRO licenses.
How much is an ASCAP license for a bar with just background music, no live bands?
Bars using only recorded background music (no live performances, karaoke, or DJs) typically fall on the lower end of ASCAP's pricing, since fees scale up with live music use, capacity, and days per week of use. Get an exact figure by requesting a quote from ASCAP directly for your specific capacity and music use pattern, since ASCAP doesn't publish a flat public rate card.
Do I need both ASCAP and BMI licenses for my bar?
Most bars playing a broad mix of popular music need licenses from both, since ASCAP and BMI represent different, mostly non-overlapping catalogs of songwriters and publishers. If your music mix spans multiple genres and eras, you're very likely playing songs from both catalogs in a given night, so one license alone usually doesn't cover you legally.
What's the penalty for playing unlicensed music in a bar?
Unlicensed public performance of copyrighted music is copyright infringement, and federal law allows statutory damages of $750 to $30,000 per infringed song for ordinary infringement, or up to $150,000 per song if a court finds the infringement willful, under 17 U.S.C. § 504(c). PROs actively investigate and pursue unlicensed venues before litigation.
Sources
- ASCAP, ASCAP License Center for restaurants and bars: ASCAP prices bar and restaurant licenses based on factors like occupancy, live vs. recorded music, and days of use rather than a flat public rate
- U.S. Copyright Office, Circular 1: Copyright Basics: Public performance of copyrighted music generally requires permission from the rights holder
- U.S. Copyright Office, 17 U.S.C. § 110(5) (Fairness in Music Licensing Act exemption text via Copyright Office): Certain small food service and drinking establishments are exempt from performance licensing under specific size and equipment conditions
- Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, Licensing overview: Businesses must hold a state-issued license before selling or serving alcoholic beverages
- Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, Quota License information: Florida quota liquor licenses are capped by county population and traded on a secondary market when the quota is full
- U.S. Copyright Office, 17 U.S.C. § 504(c): Statutory damages for copyright infringement range from $750 to $30,000 per work, up to $150,000 for willful infringement