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Tim Cook’s last day as Apple CEO arrived on August 31, 2026, ending a run that began when Steve Jobs resigned in

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UAE music licence for businesse
  • Business Licenses

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.

  • 3 min read
Al Balad Development Company
  • Saudi Arabia

The Al Balad Development Company’s partnership with Al Ittihad Club has moved to platinum sponsorship, a step that links a football club to the long effort to rebuild one of Saudi Arabia’s oldest urban districts. This Al Ittihad Club platinum sponsorship replaces the silver tier the two sides agreed in 2023. It shifts the relationship from media and marketing visibility toward a season-long program of activities connected to Historic Jeddah.

Al Balad Development Company, known as BDC, is wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund. It serves as the master developer of the Jeddah Historical District, the walled old town listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Al Ittihad Club, founded in Jeddah in 1927, is the oldest sports club in the country and carries a large regional following. Placing the two side by side puts heritage development next to one of the city’s most visible cultural assets.

What the agreement covers

Under the agreement, presented on their official website, both sides will draw on a range of media and marketing assets alongside community initiatives and events across the season. The activities will promote the cultural offerings of Historic Jeddah and BDC’s own projects. Shared content, supporter experiences, and district events form the core of the plan. The intent is to pull fans closer to the old town and to raise engagement with the district among younger residents.

Jamil Hassan Ghaznawi, CEO of Al Balad Development Company, said the partnership would help promote the company’s projects, attract visitors and investors, and support economic activity in the area. He noted the collaboration builds on the club’s long connection with Jeddah and its supporter base. The focus, he said, would fall on experiences that join sport, culture, and the historic district.

“We believe that reviving Historic Jeddah extends beyond urban regeneration to fostering sustainable connections between people and their environment. Partnering with Al Ittihad Club, backed by its massive fanbase is a pivotal step forward. It allows us to showcase our projects, attract visitors and investors, and drive regional economic activity.”, Jamil Hassan Ghaznawi said.

The Al Balad Development Company partnership and Vision 2030

The Al Balad Development Company partnership sits inside a wider structural shift. BDC works under the Public Investment Fund’s strategy and under Saudi Vision 2030, the plan to move the economy away from oil. Tourism, hospitality, and cultural sectors carry a defined role in that plan. A sponsorship that fills stadiums and feeds social channels becomes a route to an audience for a development brand that needs one.

Domingos Soares, CEO of Al Ittihad Club, said the club’s long relationship with Jeddah and its community gave the expanded partnership a firm base. He added the sponsorship would support work designed to bring supporters closer to the cultural and social life of the old district while adding value for fans and the city.

A club as a development tool

The reasoning is direct. BDC is developing roughly 2.5 million square meters of the historic core, with plans for homes, hotels, and commercial space, while keeping the district’s architectural character. A project on that scale needs footfall and attention. Al Ittihad supplies both.

The Al Balad Development Company partnership also shows how PIF-owned entities now work in concert. PIF holds a majority stake in Al Ittihad and full ownership of BDC. Sponsorship between the two keeps investment and messaging inside one portfolio. For the district, the return will show less in logo placement and more in whether the club’s supporters follow their team into Historic Jeddah’s streets, hotels, and cultural venues over the season ahead.

Photo Credit: The Al Balad Development Company

  • 3 min read
Dubai Duty Free now accepts crypto payments
  • Dubai Duty Free

Dubai Duty Free now accepts crypto payments, a step that puts one of the world’s largest single-airport retailers inside Dubai’s wider move toward digital money. The retailer has become the first airport operator in the Middle East to add Crypto.com Pay as a regulated digital payment option. Eligible customers can use it at Dubai International Airport (DXB), at Al Maktoum International Airport, and on the online store at dubaidutyfree.com.

The rollout completes a partnership the two companies signed in July 2025. Back then, Dubai Duty Free and Crypto.com agreed a memorandum of understanding to study blockchain-based payments and other digital commerce ideas. That study has now turned into a live service.

How the payment works

The system sits inside the checkout customers already use. In a store, the point-of-sale terminal creates a QR code showing the amount in UAE dirhams. The shopper scans it with the Crypto.com app and approves the payment from a digital wallet. Online, the same QR flow appears before the order goes through. Dubai Duty Free receives its settlement in UAE dirhams through Crypto.com’s regulated payment infrastructure, so the retailer never holds the digital asset itself.

Access is limited. Only eligible UAE residents with a Crypto.com account can use the service for now. Ramesh Cidambi, managing director of Dubai Duty Free, said the launch moves the July agreement into its roll-out phase and adds convenience for customers while supporting Dubai’s goal of leading global digital commerce. Eric Anziani, president and chief operating officer of Crypto.com, described the launch as another milestone in bringing regulated digital payments into everyday spending.

Why Dubai Duty Free now accepts crypto payments under central-bank rules

The service runs under the framework set by the Central Bank of the UAE. Crypto.com said it is the first Virtual Asset Service Provider in the country to receive a Stored Value Facilities licence from the central bank, which lets it offer regulated payment services. Because Dubai Duty Free now accepts crypto payments under that licence, each transaction stays inside central-bank supervision. That licence is the reason the offer counts as a regulated digital payment option rather than an informal crypto transfer.

This detail carries weight for the region. For years, crypto in the Gulf sat outside clear rules. A central-bank licence changes the footing, because it lets a large, cash-heavy retailer take digital-asset payments without stepping outside supervision.

Where this fits in Dubai’s plan

Dubai Duty Free now accepts crypto payments alongside Apple Pay, Alipay and TerraPay, its existing digital options. The addition feeds directly into the Dubai Cashless Strategy under the Dubai Economic Agenda, known as D33. That plan targets 90 percent of financial transactions across the public and private sectors to be cashless by the end of 2026.

Seen at scale, Dubai Duty Free crypto payments form one node in a much larger shift. Travel retail moves a high volume of transactions across many currencies and many nationalities. Adding a regulated crypto rail to that flow tests whether digital assets can work for routine buying rather than trading alone.

The wider signal is about method, not novelty. When Dubai Duty Free now accepts crypto payments through a licensed provider, it shows the emirate routing new payment types through its regulator instead of around it. For a city aiming to sit among the world’s top cashless economies, that route matters more than the technology on show.

  • 3 min read
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