Playing recorded or live music at a wedding, a corporate function, a DJ show — or in a bank, supermarket or shopping mall — now requires a paid licence, under regulations gazetted by the Association of Creators and Publishers of Sri Lanka (ACPOSL) under the National Intellectual Property Office of Sri Lanka (NIPO).
Both Daily Mirror and the Sunday Times report the rules came into force “last Tuesday” — which, dated from the Sunday Times’ 20 September edition, is 15 September. Neither outlet states the date outright, and neither gives the gazette number.
What it costs
Fees run from Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 125,000, banded by event type and headcount:
| Event type | Under 100 | 100–300 | Over 300 |
|---|---|---|---|
| DJ event | Rs. 20,000 | Rs. 30,000 | Rs. 40,000 |
| Live music event | Rs. 25,000 | Rs. 35,000 | Rs. 50,000 |
| Private/corporate DJ event | Rs. 25,000 | Rs. 40,000 | Rs. 50,000 |
| Private/corporate live or hybrid | Rs. 50,000 | Rs. 75,000 | Rs. 125,000 |
The licence must be obtained at least 14 days before the event, and the duty falls on the hotel or the organiser — a corporate client, wedding organiser or individual. Hotels are not to permit an event without ACPOSL clearance.
One obligation neither outlet examines: after the event, the organiser must give ACPOSL an audio recording sufficient to identify the music played. Enforcement is therefore retrospective and evidentiary, not just a pre-event fee.
The exemption is the story
The licence covers Sri Lankan works represented by ACPOSL and Hindi and Tamil works represented through the Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS). Events playing exclusively English-language or other foreign music are not required to obtain a licence at all.
That creates an incentive the regulations appear not to have anticipated: a rule written to pay Sri Lankan composers gives every venue in the country a direct financial reason to stop playing Sri Lankan music.
Asoka Hettigoda, president of the Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL), said as much to the Sunday Times — hotels “could even stop playing Sinhala music” if the fee becomes a burden, which he argued would hurt tourism by reducing the exposure of visitors who come “to experience authentic Sri Lankan culture.” He called the implementation an “overkill”, and THASL has gone to the Tourism Ministry for advice.
The case for it
ACPOSL Chairman Nilar N. Cassim told the Sunday Times the aim is to route royalties accurately to composers, authors and publishers. Singers usually get the recognition, he said, while composers and lyricists are neither credited nor paid. ACPOSL says the scheme targets commercially organised events, and that small-scale artists and DJs will not be caught by it in certain circumstances — which circumstances is not specified.
The regulations are the first concrete enforcement step under a framework the government flagged as incoherent in May, when Cabinet approved formulating a National Intellectual Property Policy precisely because agencies working alongside NIPO lacked coordination. The governing statute remains the Intellectual Property Act No. 36 of 2003.
A gap in the published schedule
The fee table covers events. But the regulations also reach supermarkets, retail stores, banks, financial institutions, showrooms, exhibition complexes, shopping malls, arcades, plazas, office buildings and cinema halls — premises that play background music continuously rather than holding events. No fee, licence period or renewal term is published for any of them, and neither outlet asked. That is the largest affected category and the least defined.
Not reported
Neither report gives the gazette number or its date, the penalty for playing unlicensed music, any appeal or dispute mechanism, or who audits the post-event recordings. Nor is it stated what share of IPRS-collected fees on Hindi and Tamil works leaves the country, whether religious and charitable events are exempt, or how a wedding playing a mix of English and Sinhala songs is assessed — the exemption is written as exclusively foreign-language, so a single Sinhala track appears to trigger the full fee.
