Questions. UAE and Saudi Arabia
What venues ask
Every question we are asked, in one place. If yours is not here, ask it on WhatsApp and it will be.
Updated .
Licensing from 1 December 2026
What changes on 1 December 2026?
Ministerial Resolution 136 of 2026 comes into force. A venue that plays music holds a licence from a licensed collector, EMRA or Music Nation, in the operator's own name, and pays the fee for its tariff band. The full guide.
Who pays the music licence fee, the venue or the music provider?
The venue operator. Public performance fees are set by the Ministry of Economy and Tourism and are paid by the venue operator to a licensed collector. The fee for each location follows the published tariff band for its category, determined by the operator's own seat count or floor area and confirmed by the collector. Cloud Pulse never bills or remits these fees.
Does Cloud Pulse's licence cover my venue?
No provider's does. Our music library is supplied for business use, with library licensing handled in coordination with EMRA, the Emirates Music Rights Association. Public performance rights are the responsibility of the venue operator under UAE law and are held in the operator's own name. Cloud Pulse assists the venue in meeting its public performance obligations; this coordination and compliance assistance is included in the subscription at no additional charge. Cloud Pulse is not a collecting society and never bills or remits public performance fees.
Do I need a licence from both collectors?
No. A venue licensed through either collector is compliant. A joint collection mechanism between the collectors keeps the total collected from a venue within the Ministry-approved ceiling.
How is my fee set?
By the published tariff band for your category: restaurants and cafés by seats, shops and malls by floor area, fitness clubs by total area, hotels by guest rooms. The collector confirms your band. Outlets inside a hotel pay under their own category.
Who is exempt?
The exemptions the Ministry lists are educational and academic institutions, government entities, uses within national occasions, personal non-commercial celebrations, and any other use the Ministry exempts by decision.
Do the UAE rules apply in Saudi Arabia?
No. The licensing pages on this site describe the UAE. Cloud Pulse in Saudi Arabia.
Personal apps
Can I play Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or Anghami in my business?
No. Each service's own terms limit it to personal, non-commercial use. What the apps say.
Does Spotify Premium change that?
No. Spotify's terms apply to the service whatever the plan.
If I hold a licence from a collector, can I use Spotify then?
No. The collector's licence covers your public performance fee. It does not change Spotify's terms. A venue needs both: music supplied for business use, and its own licence.
The music
Who chooses the music?
A Music Curator builds every Playlist from your brief. Every playlist is reviewed beyond standard explicit content filtering to ensure it is free from content that may conflict with local cultural values or the client's brand.
Commercial music or royalty free?
Either, chosen per brand or per Zone. Commercial music is the artists and tracks your customers know; the venue pays the published tariff to a licensed collector. Royalty free music: licensed directly from its rights holders for business use. Designed to sit outside the collective tariff; whether a fee is owed is confirmed by the licensed collector, not by Cloud Pulse.
How often does the music change?
Every Zone is kept fresh, updated as we go, as the venue and the season change.
Can different rooms play different music?
Yes. Each Zone has its own Schedule, or runs on demand with staff picking the Playlist for the session.
What happens at prayer time?
Music pauses and resumes at prayer times automatically, with pre-prayer, prayer and post-prayer windows configured to the client's requirements. Prayer times, handled.
Players and equipment
Does it work with the speakers we have?
Cloud Pulse services work with any music system. Speakers, amplifiers and subwoofers are the venue's choice and never determine compatibility. Compatibility is determined by the player only.
Which players are there?
Pulse App on mobile and tablet, Pulse Web on PC, Pulse Sonos on Sonos systems, the Pulse Player as a dedicated device, or a per-venue stream on your existing system. The choice is yours. How it works.
What happens when the internet drops?
Playback starts on power-up without staff involvement. Music is not interrupted by connectivity drops: the player holds a local cache and continues playing until the connection returns.
Can head office see every venue?
Every Zone is monitored: live Zone status (playing, paused), player status (online or offline), remote playback control, and complete playback and log history. Head office has full visibility over all its Zones in Pulse View.
Getting started
How do we start?
A sample Playlist for one of your brands before anything is signed, one questionnaire per Zone, Playlists built in two weeks, two site visits included.
What support do we get?
Support is available during business hours, with best-effort response outside them and escalation for critical outages. Enterprise clients have a named Account Manager as their point of contact.
Which countries do you serve?
The UAE and Saudi Arabia.
How do we reach you?
WhatsApp +971 58 554 6277 or info@cloud-pulse.com.
Sources
Where this comes from
- Every Cloud Pulse statement on this page is the wording used in Cloud Pulse's own client documents, unchanged or shortened without addition.
- Ministry of Economy and Tourism, Guide to Collective Management in Music, version 1.1, June 2026, adopted by Ministerial Resolution 136 of 2026, in force 1 December 2026.
- Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and Anghami terms, checked 31 October 2026, on the Spotify question page.
Contact
Tell us about your venue
We come back with a sample Playlist and a date for the site survey.
- WhatsApp+971 58 554 6277
- Emailinfo@cloud-pulse.com
- CompanyCloud Pulse LLC, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Serving the UAE and Saudi Arabia.