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#licenses

Licenses

Track business licenses, renewals, and associated costs

Do You Need a Music License to Play Spotify in Your Store? A 2026 Small Business Guide to ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and the Section 110(5) Exemption

A personal Spotify plan is not a public-performance license. Playing it for customers exposes a business to statutory damages of $750–$30,000 per song ($150,000 if willful), while blanket licenses from ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and GMR run roughly $500–$2,000 a year and business music services cost $17–$60 a month per location. The Section 110(5) exemption covers only over-the-air radio and TV in establishments under 2,000 square feet (3,750 for food and drink), never streaming.

Security Camera and CCTV Installation Business Bookkeeping: Job Costing, Monitoring Revenue, and Truck Stock

A security camera installer runs three businesses out of one bank account — installs, monitoring contracts, and truck stock. This guide covers job-costing installs as separate equipment and labor buckets, booking monitoring fees as deferred revenue, cycle-counting truck inventory, budgeting licensing and certifications, and the eight monthly KPIs that decide what the company is worth.

Selling Seeds Legally: Federal Seed Act Labels, the Five-Month Germination Clock, and State Permits

Seed is only sellable if the label behind it is compliant — the Federal Seed Act requires kind, variety, lot number, germination percentage and test date, allows no more than five calendar months between the germination test month and interstate shipment (24 months for hermetically sealed containers), and demands three years of lot records. Most states add a labeler permit and their own sell-by limits on top.

New Jersey Home Improvement Contractor Licensing: What Changed and How to Stay Compliant

New Jersey is converting home improvement contracting from registration to licensure under P.L.2023 c.237, with licensing provisions effective February 1, 2026. Registration still costs $110 a year, requires $500,000 in general liability coverage and a displayed 13VH number, and any contract over $500 must be written — violations are automatic Consumer Fraud Act unlawful practices carrying treble damages plus attorney's fees, while unregistered contractors generally cannot sue to collect payment.

Austin's New STR Rules Put Your Listing on a 10-Day Clock: A Host's Compliance and Bookkeeping Guide

Since July 1, 2026, Airbnb and Vrbo must verify Austin STR license numbers, refuse unlicensed bookings, and remove flagged listings within 10 days of city notice, with fines up to $500 per day. Here are the license costs ($836.30 new, $385.30 renewal, two-year term), the 17% occupancy-tax stack, the quarterly filings platform collection does not cover, and the per-property books that keep it provable.

31 States, One Playbook: What the Money Transmission Modernization Act Means for Your Money-Transfer Business

Thirty-one states have adopted the Money Transmission Modernization Act, harmonizing money transmitter licensing around three financial pillars — tangible net worth on a 3%/2%/0.5% sliding scale, a surety bond equal to 100% of average daily transmission liability between a $100,000 floor and a $500,000 cap, and permissible investments backing every outstanding customer obligation — plus one shared NMLS application process.