Your Bar Needs a License to Turn On the TV

Trivia night is a licensed event. So is the jukebox, the ping pong table and the TV over the bar. Boston does not leave any of it to the honor system, and the city prints the price of each one on a public fee schedule. Read it once and you will never look at a Tuesday night in a pub the same way.

None of this is a scandal. It is how a city keeps a city full of rooms with speakers from turning into a noise complaint. But it explains a lot about why bars offer what they offer, and why some stay quiet on purpose.

The rule: if it entertains, it is licensed

The city's license page says an annual entertainment license is required for businesses that host public shows. That covers more than a concert. The same page spells out the range, from live music and DJs to karaoke, dancing and even the TVs.

Separately, the city's explainer says you need a license once a restaurant or bar hosts a public show. It also says you need one if the show is free but the room has coin-operated activities; think arcade. If you are wondering how a bar with a claw machine fits in, that is how.

Live and non-live: the line the city draws

There are two kinds. A live license is for bands, DJs, karaoke hosts, trivia and dancers, per the city's list. A non-live license covers jukeboxes and monitors. That page also files dart boards and ping pong under non-live.

The line matters because the money does. A bar with a radio and a jukebox sits on the cheap side of the list, and a bar with a DJ and a dance floor sits on the other. If you have ever wondered why a pub is happy to put a game on every screen but has no live music, the fee schedule is part of the answer. That is our reading, not the city's.

What it costs, item by item

The fee schedule is public, and it is the most honest menu in Boston nightlife. These are the city's own numbers.

• The cheapest tier, for a radio, piped-in or background music, is $80 a year.
• Add a jukebox and up to five TVs and you are at $120.
• Big screens are charged on their own: $180 per screen for anything over 27 inches.
• A band or singers with no more than three performers is $400.
• A DJ, karaoke or dancing patrons puts a room in the next tier, which starts at $800 for 250 people or fewer.
• Trivia has a flat $50 fee. Our piece on what a trivia night costs a bar has the rest of the bill.
• A ping pong table adds $50.
• Each arcade game or pinball machine adds $140.

Do the sum for a room we would call typical, a pub with a jukebox, a few TVs, a trivia night and a pinball machine. On the city's own schedule that adds up to a few hundred dollars a year. That is our arithmetic and it leaves out every other cost of running the place, so do not read it as a case that licenses are a burden. They are a line item. What they show is that a game room is deliberate. Somebody chose to pay for the pinball machine, and our guide to bars with games shows where that choice went.

The paperwork behind the paperwork

Applying is not the end of it. The city says it cannot issue your final entertainment license until the food or alcohol license is fully approved. A venue also needs the right zoning, and the city says no annual live license without live zoning. The listed timeline is 4 to 6 weeks.

That ties back to the permit stack we describe in why your block has no bar: a drink license is only the first permit, and every extra thing the room does needs another.

What happens when it goes wrong

The city is open about the penalties. It lists overcrowding, disruptive incidents and illegal activities as examples of violations. A violation can mean a warning, probation or revocation. Before that it holds a hearing.

For you, this is the practical point. A room that is over its limit is a room that can lose the license that lets it have a DJ. If a place is shoulder to shoulder and the door is still letting people in, that is your cue to go somewhere else, and a good reason to leave early with your group.

The license does not cover the music

One fact surprises people. The city says its licenses cover only the sound. They are not a permit to play copyrighted music. A venue pays separately to the performing rights groups, and the city puts that cost at hundreds to a couple thousand dollars.

So the cover charge at the door is paying for a stack: the room, the talent, the city license and the music license. Our guide to what a Boston cover charge buys walks through the door prices that sit on top.

One exception: the street

Busking is the one free corner. The city issues no permits. Performers still have to keep it down: the noise ordinance sets a 50-decibel limit overnight, from 11 at night to 7 in the morning. If you are walking home late past a player, that is the rule they are playing under.

What to do with this

Use the fee schedule as a filter. A room that pays for live music wants you there for the music, so stay for the set. A room with a jukebox and a TV wants you to talk. Pick the one that matches your night, and read the posted hours at the door; why Boston closes at 2 AM explains who sets them.

For karaoke nights, the same rules apply, and our karaoke guide says which rooms run them. And plan the ride home before the first round. Last Train shows your line at /last-train/, and getting home after last call has the fallbacks if the trains have stopped. Walk out with the people you came with.