Music licensing aboard aircraft presents two related questions. What should operators pay for music played in different settings, and what usage information can they realistically report? The Copyright Board addressed both in 2026 CB 4.
The Board approved adjusted fees of $3.05 per seat for ground use and $7.22 per seat for in flight programming. It addressed overlapping charges and permitted operators to report files made available to passengers when actual playback counts aren't available.
These reporting rules affect how collecting societies can distribute royalties. They don't mean that a file offered to a passenger was necessarily played, or that every music right has been valued separately.