Systems and methods for payload encoding and decoding are disclosed. Example apparatus disclosed herein determine encoding data corresponding to one or more frequencies to be used to encode a message into audio data. Disclosed example apparatus also generate a license file including the encoding data, the license file corresponding to the message to be encoded into the audio data, the message to be encoded into the audio data by an encoding device. Disclosed example apparatus further transmit the license file to a decoding device to enable the decoding device to decode the message from the audio data based on the license file.