Basically, to legally broadcast music you must: A) Obtain permissions from the copyright holder (usually the publisher, record label) of the *composition*. ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC offer compulsory licenses for all of the artists they represent, fees based upon roughly how many listeners your station has & how many songs in your broadcast are by artists/composers they represent. B) Obtain permissions from the copyright holder of the particular *recording* of the composition you want to play. SoundExchange (a division of the RIAA) offers a compulsory license at .07 cents per song per listener, for every song you play. There *was* a deal for an alternative percent of revenue royalty, but the legislation authorizing this had a sunset clause of December 2002. C) Switch your Internet connection to one where servers are allowed, typically business connections. D) Pay royalties for using MP3 technology in your stream, or WMA, AAC, etc. Ogg Vorbis is great here, since there are no royalties to pay. If any music you wish to play is not represented by ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and their overseas performance right organizations (or if you don't want to go with the compulsory licensing), then you must negotiate directly with the publishers for rights to broadcast their music. The publishers have every right to blow you off & not even *consider* licensing their music to you. RIAA/SoundExchange compulsory licensing covers even non-members (supposedly), though RIAA-members recieve 19 times the amount of royalties directed to non-members. (SoundExchange admits it on their site.) Compulsory licensing is financial death for anyone without a significant sum of money. Direct negotiation as an alternative is just painful, though, especially when many will refer you BACK TO THEIR REPRESENTING ORGANIZATION (i.e. ASCAP).>===== Original Message From Mark Lehrer <mark@knm.org> ====>> What are the current legalities in relation to non commercial music >> streams, or more accurately put non profit streams, and is this >> currently being seriously policed? > >Yes it is being seriously policed. This is controlled by copyright >law; there are three companies that basically control all music >copyrights; ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. From what I understand, you will >need a "compulsory" license from each, and they now have additional >royalty payments and reporting requirements for the songs you play. >jwz had a good write-up of this (before the big royalty agreement >though). It's a must-read: >http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/webcasting.html > >The only way I have found around this is to play music that is >"legally tradeable", e.g. live phish, dead, metallica, etc who allow >you to share electronic copies. If you use their music this way, then >there can be no revenue of any kind; even a banner ad will get you in >trouble. > >It's painful. Basically it is designed to keep the hobbyists out. >Copyrights should be a lot shorter, and should never be allowed to be >owned by a corporation... works for hire should have different, and >even shorter, terms. > >Mark--- >8 ---- List archives: http://www.xiph.org/archives/ icecast project homepage: http://www.icecast.org/ To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to 'icecast-request@xiph.org' containing only the word 'unsubscribe' in the body. No subject is needed. Unsubscribe messages sent to the list will be ignored/filtered.
Hmmm, so in summary, anyone wanting to put together a station for a couple of hundred listeners with out a massive bank account, it can not be done legally. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris G (Moguta)" <chrisg1@umbc.edu> To: "icecast" <icecast@xiph.org> Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2003 11:33 AM Subject: RE: [icecast] legalities of streaming <p>> Basically, to legally broadcast music you must:> > A) Obtain permissions from the copyright holder (usually the publisher,record> label) of the *composition*. ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC offer compulsorylicenses> for all of the artists they represent, fees based upon roughly how many > listeners your station has & how many songs in your broadcast are by > artists/composers they represent. > > B) Obtain permissions from the copyright holder of the particular*recording*> of the composition you want to play. SoundExchange (a division of theRIAA)> offers a compulsory license at .07 cents per song per listener, for everysong> you play. There *was* a deal for an alternative percent of revenueroyalty,> but the legislation authorizing this had a sunset clause of December 2002. > > C) Switch your Internet connection to one where servers are allowed,typically> business connections. > > D) Pay royalties for using MP3 technology in your stream, or WMA, AAC,etc.> Ogg Vorbis is great here, since there are no royalties to pay. > > If any music you wish to play is not represented by ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and > their overseas performance right organizations (or if you don't want to go > with the compulsory licensing), then you must negotiate directly with the > publishers for rights to broadcast their music. The publishers have every > right to blow you off & not even *consider* licensing their music to you. > > RIAA/SoundExchange compulsory licensing covers even non-members(supposedly),> though RIAA-members recieve 19 times the amount of royalties directed to > non-members. (SoundExchange admits it on their site.) > > Compulsory licensing is financial death for anyone without a significantsum> of money. Direct negotiation as an alternative is just painful, though, > especially when many will refer you BACK TO THEIR REPRESENTINGORGANIZATION> (i.e. ASCAP). > > >===== Original Message From Mark Lehrer <mark@knm.org> ====> >> What are the current legalities in relation to non commercial music > >> streams, or more accurately put non profit streams, and is this > >> currently being seriously policed? > > > >Yes it is being seriously policed. This is controlled by copyright > >law; there are three companies that basically control all music > >copyrights; ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. From what I understand, you will > >need a "compulsory" license from each, and they now have additional > >royalty payments and reporting requirements for the songs you play. > >jwz had a good write-up of this (before the big royalty agreement > >though). It's a must-read: > >http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/webcasting.html > > > >The only way I have found around this is to play music that is > >"legally tradeable", e.g. live phish, dead, metallica, etc who allow > >you to share electronic copies. If you use their music this way, then > >there can be no revenue of any kind; even a banner ad will get you in > >trouble. > > > >It's painful. Basically it is designed to keep the hobbyists out. > >Copyrights should be a lot shorter, and should never be allowed to be > >owned by a corporation... works for hire should have different, and > >even shorter, terms. > > > >Mark > > --- >8 ---- > List archives: http://www.xiph.org/archives/ > icecast project homepage: http://www.icecast.org/ > To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to'icecast-request@xiph.org'> containing only the word 'unsubscribe' in the body. No subject is needed. > Unsubscribe messages sent to the list will be ignored/filtered.--- >8 ---- List archives: http://www.xiph.org/archives/ icecast project homepage: http://www.icecast.org/ To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to 'icecast-request@xiph.org' containing only the word 'unsubscribe' in the body. No subject is needed. Unsubscribe messages sent to the list will be ignored/filtered.
Hi Mitchell: If you're going to do it from here in Australia, APRA and AMCOS are the organisations which you need to look out for. AMCOS represent composers, and APRA deal with performance royalties. I saw some draft stuff from AMCOS, but it was several years ago and it's bound to have changed by now. Geoff. <p> -- Geoff Shang <gshang@uq.net.au> ICQ number 43634701 Make sure your E-mail can be read by everyone! http://www.betips.net/etc/evilmail.html Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments. See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html --- >8 ---- List archives: http://www.xiph.org/archives/ icecast project homepage: http://www.icecast.org/ To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to 'icecast-request@xiph.org' containing only the word 'unsubscribe' in the body. No subject is needed. Unsubscribe messages sent to the list will be ignored/filtered.