Fatima Al-Nouri

Writer,

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Fatima Al-Nouri is an experienced journalist passionate about financial freedom. Her career highlights include features on Bitcoin adoption, stablecoins, and global regulation. She received her diploma in Journalism and New Media and continues to engage Arabic-speaking audiences on digital finance.

Business Licenses

UAE music licence for businesses starts in December with new annual fees

A UAE music licence for businesses will soon shape the cost of playing a song in public. From December 2026, restaurants, cafes, hotels, malls, gyms and airlines that play music must hold one. The Ministry of Economy and Tourism set out the rules in a new guide on music rights. The guide covers a wide list of venues. Radio stations, TV channels, concerts and similar events fall under it too. Each licence lasts one year and can be renewed. Fee brackets depend on how the music is used and how big the business is.

Who collects the UAE music licensing fees?

Two Ministry-approved bodies will handle the UAE music licence for businesses. The Emirates Music Rights Association and Music Nation UAE act for the rights holders. That pool includes composers, singers, record producers and publishers. They will issue the permits and take in the money.

The Ministry did not publish exact fee amounts. What it did confirm is the shape of the fees. Live music and DJ sets tend to cost more. Smaller venues with background music should pay less. Not every place has to pay. Schools and academic bodies are exempt. Government offices, national events and private, non-commercial parties also sit outside the rules. The Ministry can add more exempt groups later.

Why the UAE music licence for businesses matters now

Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy and Tourism, tied the move to the wider economy. He said the UAE backs its music and creative sectors as it works to widen its income. The minister called the guide one step toward a full system for copyright and related rights. It fits the goals of UAE Vision 2031.

Here is the practical read. The commercial use of music UAE venues rely on is now a paid, tracked activity. Pressing play on a home streaming app and hoping no one asks carries real risk. If you run a venue, this is your cue to check your setup. The framework rests on the UAE copyright law. Back in 2021, the country reshaped that law with fresh rules on copyright and neighbouring rights. Those rules created public performance rights across the country. Now the guide gives them a way to be enforced and paid.

The guide also sets up a Cultural Support Fund in the Field of Music. It will give money, technical help and artistic support for writing, production and live shows. Support targets new talent, including children, youth and people of determination. The fund will also carry Emirati music abroad. Ten per cent of all fees collected will feed this fund. A joint team from the Ministry of Economy and Tourism and the Ministry of Culture will run it. The collecting bodies must keep a separate bank account for the fund’s share.

Oversight and disputes

The Ministry will watch the licensed bodies for compliance with the UAE copyright law. Checks include field visits and reviews of financial and technical records. Complaints from rights holders will be handled too, with calm settlements sought or action taken where needed.

One line stands out. The Ministry keeps the right to change licence terms when the rules or public interest call for it, and licensees must comply at once. For venues, the UAE music licence for businesses is now a fixed cost of running a room with a soundtrack. My read: firms that move early will feel the least pain.

By Fatima Al-Nouri
3 min read

Apple Inc.

Lease Your iPhone: How Apple’s New Klarna-Backed Upgrade Program Works

You can now lease your iPhone the way you might rent a car, one steady payment at a time. Apple opened its new leasing program, Apple Upgrade, across the United States on July 28. The service runs through a partnership with Klarna, the buy now, pay later firm. To lease your iPhone, you pass a soft credit check that leaves your score alone. Sign up online, in the Apple Store app, or at a retail store.

What the Apple Upgrade program covers

The plan reaches most of Apple’s current lineup. Think iPhone 17 models, the iPhone Air, newer Apple Watches, Macs, and iPads. iPhones and Apple Watches carry 12- or 24-month terms. Macs and iPads run on 24- or 36-month terms. Cheaper gear sits outside the deal, including the iPhone 16, the base iPad, the Apple Watch SE, and the MacBook Neo. The Apple Klarna partnership handles billing, and you watch every payment inside the Klarna app.

The real iPhone lease cost breakdown. Here is where you read the fine print. When you lease your iPhone, the entry price sounds small at $17.99 a month. A premium model tells a different story. An unlocked iPhone 17 Pro runs $31.99 a month over 24 months, or $45.99 over 12. That 12-month total comes to $551.88, still under the $1,099 shelf price. The iPhone lease cost climbs fast once you pick a high-end phone. Apple says you never pay more than the full list price during a term, taxes and damage fees aside. AppleCare is a separate bill now, so add it to your sum. Trade in an old device and the Apple Upgrade program trims your monthly payment.

How to lease your iPhone and what comes next

Knowing how to lease an iPhone is the easy part. The choice at the finish line matters more. After your term ends, three roads appear. One lets you pay a one-time fee and keep the phone. Another sends it back with nothing owed. The third swaps it for a newer model on a fresh lease. Miss a payment, and Klarna rolls it into the next month with no late fee, though three missed months end the deal. You need to be at least 18 and hold a Klarna account to qualify.

Why Apple built this now

The timing is not an accident. Electronics prices are climbing, pushed by a memory chip shortage Apple has already cited for iPad and Mac price hikes. People hold their phones longer too, with the average American keeping one for 22 months, per a Reviews.org survey. A foldable iPhone is expected in September, and it could be Apple’s priciest handset yet. Leasing moves your focus from a big sticker price to a low monthly figure.

Francisco Jeronimo, an analyst at International Data Corporation, put it plainly. “Apple Upgrade lands at precisely the moment Apple needs it,” he said. My read is simple. The old iPhone Upgrade Program steered you toward a single device. This one wants your whole Apple habit on a subscription. Over four years, leasing a fresh phone every two years can cost hundreds more than buying one outright. Before you lease your iPhone, weigh what always owning the newest model costs you.

By Fatima Al-Nouri
3 min read

Elon Musk

Elon Musk’s X Money offers a 6% yield, but the paywall is the catch here

Elon Musk’s X Money went live in the US in late July, and the headline number is a 6% yield. The rate looks generous. Getting it is another matter. X selects who joins, limits the service to US residents, and sets an age floor of 18. You also need a paid X account before the door opens at all. The catch sits in the fine print. Premium+ subscribers qualify for the 6% APY through their tier. Anyone on Premium reaches the same rate only after a qualifying direct deposit, which means at least $1,000 landing in the account. X calls the rate variable and warns fees can eat into what you earn.

What you actually pay to earn 6%

Run the math, and the shine dulls. X Premium starts at $8 a month, or $84 a year on the annual plan. Premium+ costs $40 a month, or $395 a year. Those fees do not vanish. They come straight out of your interest. Say you pay $8 monthly. Over a year that is $96. A 6% return on $1,600 also comes to $96 before tax. Your yield and your subscription cancel out. On the annual $84 plan, you would need roughly $1,400 sitting in the account to break even. Premium+ raises the bar hard. Its $395 annual fee needs about $6,583 at 6% to cover the cost. Pay monthly, and the total climbs to $480, pushing the break-even balance near $8,000. If you already buy Premium for verification, ads, or Grok, that changes the sum. Someone who signed up only for the yield sees a much smaller net return.

How Elon Musk’s X Money is built

Underneath Elon Musk’s X Money sits a bank partnership. X Payments runs the front end, but it is not a bank. Cross River Bank holds the deposits and provides the regulated banking underneath. X also spreads eligible balances across partner banks through a cash sweep program. That structure lets the published terms advertise up to $10 million in aggregate FDIC coverage. Standard protection stays at $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, per ownership category. X Payments itself carries no FDIC insurance. The product does more than pay interest. An X Money Visa debit card gives 3% cashback on eligible purchases, with no foreign transaction fees. X refunds ATM charges within three days. Because Visa accepts the card everywhere, you can spend outside the app. Peer-to-peer transfers, bill pay, wires, mailed checks, and early direct deposit round out the account.

Who gets in, and who waits

Elon Musk’s X Money eligibility comes down to three gates. First, an X Premium+ subscription or a qualifying Premium account. Second, an invitation from X. Third, for Premium members, the direct deposit condition. Free accounts get nothing yet. People outside the US stay locked out too. Invitation control lets X manage how many users flood in during the first phase, while Cross River handles deposits, payments, and compliance.

My read on the 6% hook

Here is my read. The 6% is a customer acquisition hook, and a sharp one. It pulls attention and gets people talking about Elon Musk’s X Money as a bank rival. But the number you see is not the number you keep. Premium+ users pay the most for direct access. Those on regular Premium pay less and work for it. Whether X holds this rate once the crowd arrives is the real question, and I would not bet on 6% lasting forever.

By Fatima Al-Nouri
3 min read

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