Online Radio Licensing

[IcePhreak]

Does anyone know anything about getting my shoutcast radio licensed? I've heard that you must have it licensed to legally play music to other people. I'm not exactly sure as this info I heard years ago and am now getting back into the game. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
P.S. - I've tried google but to no avail.

[Lucy]

Does anyone know anything about getting my shoutcast radio licensed? I've heard that you must have it licensed to legally play music to other people. I'm not exactly sure as this info I heard years ago and am now getting back into the game. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
P.S. - I've tried google but to no avail.
I remember the big hooha about this issue, different countries implement the rule differently so would really need to know where you are so you could be directed to the right licensor per-say.

[sex]

Pay me 1000 USD and I will let give you certificate to play all the bopping tunes

[Jack!]

http://www.prsformusic.com/users/broadcastandonline/onlinemobile/MusicServices/LOML/Pages/LOML.aspx

Starts from £120/Year.

[AgnesIO]

Fairly sure Habbo fansites don't have them though

[Rocker]

No, you are correct. Habbo fansites don't use any types of licenses as they just use a shoutcast host (vortexservers.com for instance). The music industry doesn't care about Habbo fan sites streaming music otherwise they would have shut all of them down years ago.

[peteyt]

Does anyone know anything about getting my shoutcast radio licensed? I've heard that you must have it licensed to legally play music to other people. I'm not exactly sure as this info I heard years ago and am now getting back into the game. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
P.S. - I've tried google but to no avail.


http://www.prsformusic.com/users/broadcastandonline/onlinemobile/MusicServices/LOML/Pages/LOML.aspx

Starts from £120/Year.


No, you are correct. Habbo fansites don't use any types of licenses as they just use a shoutcast host (vortexservers.com for instance). The music industry doesn't care about Habbo fan sites streaming music otherwise they would have shut all of them down years ago.

Jack is right about the PRS license but sadly to be actually legal at least if your in the UK, you need both a PRS and a PPL license http://www.ppluk.com/I-Play-Music/Radio-Broadcasting/Radio-types/Online-radio-and-services/

As mentioned it does depend on your country. I know technically that even with a PPL and PRS license it is illegal for Americans to listen although the American license bodies will probably tackle those not paying any royalties over stations paying some. PPL and PRS do cover a large number of countries to.

The way PPL and PRS licenses work are by buying a set number of streams (listens). As an example, you could pay for 1000 streams. Each time a listener listens to a song that's classed as a stream so 10 listeners listening to 1 song equals 10 streams. If those 10 listeners then listen to another song that is another 10 streams totalling up to 20 streams. At each quarter you are expected to fill in reports with a sample of the music played and some more information about listen figures.

The licenses also come with a few rules. For example there is a limit to the number of songs from one artist you can play in both a row and also in a set hour I think. The same goes to album tracks (multi track albums are okay). I had to do the licenses for my station so have all the paper work if you need any help with them.

As to Rocker, actually a load of Habbo Fansites where sent emails a few years back from either PPL or PRS (maybe both) asking for licenses and I believe demanding a backlog of payments for all unpaid royalties. However I don't know what happened in regards to this as I think most fan sites still remained streaming illegally as as you mentioned the music industry will probably go for the much bigger fish but you never know.

[IcePhreak]

Thanks for the imput everyone. As for where I'm located I'm in the US.