Do I need a license ?
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amateurdj
New Member
Thanks a lot for the answer. I'll finish polishing up the first few episodes then.
Just as an add on question here does this extend to their being no need for a license on the client side with regards to 'format shifting' the songs into the recordings to the file that is sent to the broadcasters or is that a different minefield?
MedwayRadio
New Member
You are right in that licensing is a minefield. Assuming you are talking about music licencing here and UK based
As mentioned previously, a station requires appropriate licencing in place to BROADCAST music and your show content may have to align with the conditions of the licence(s) the station has, for example, only a certain number of tracks within a timeframe, provide all the detail of the tracks etc etc.
However as a producer of a product you may need SEPARATE licences to those above. A PPL/PRS licence for COPYING commercial music comes to mind. A investigation/discussion with PRS/PPL/MCPS may be required. Good Luck
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Mugophone
New Member
Hi everybody! My questions is: That tousend and tousend internet radio station have all licenses? It is very hard to believe, a station with 200 song and few accidental listener with no commercials, to have different licenses. I think is madeness.
Maybe is fair, if this licenses institutes scan this hobby radios and if they find some with commercials, and tousends of listeners, ask them to send periodicaly the resume of playlist and playtime, to calculate some for license payment, but every hobbyst radio station to pay for nothing, it is not normal. The hobbyst radio Dj make the world better and nicest, spend a lot of time and pay for server, that is ok. But to have license in my opinion is non sense.
Maybe is fair, if this licenses institutes scan this hobby radios and if they find some with commercials, and tousends of listeners, ask them to send periodicaly the resume of playlist and playtime, to calculate some for license payment, but every hobbyst radio station to pay for nothing, it is not normal. The hobbyst radio Dj make the world better and nicest, spend a lot of time and pay for server, that is ok. But to have license in my opinion is non sense.
It is true that small stations without ads may be left alone for a bit (I ran an EDM station for about 2 years not registered to copyright and had no trouble; ironically because each part of it (music store, playout server, live stream studio) was in a different EU country and none of the copyright authorities were able to handle such a situation, but also didn't want to shout about it as it meant they weren't complying to the EU requirements for free trade across borders - so I couldn't go legit even if I tried to! 
A great deal depends on your country's laws (and how much they are enforced!) the kind of music you play (many specialist genres and independent labels are not always registered with the copyright authorities) and how popular your station becomes.
A lot of popular trance/EDM labels *are* registered to the copyright authorities; but their legal teams often choose not to enforce the laws heavily (otherwise the whole EDM/rave scene would never have worked as if they are strictly applied even DJ's mixes are forbidden!) Similar happens with the Dutch "piratenhits" scene which combines streaming and real pirate broadcasts on FM bands, as well as the older hits/Schlager which are on major labels there are a lot of new independent tracks.
Beware though there are these startup companies that monitor all radio streams "on behalf of artists" and tip off copyright authorities. These are often the "bots" you might see constantly tuned in in your Centovacast panel; I've identified loads on the community radio streams for my district (admittedly those have to be registered to copyright and do run ads).
So it is up to you how much risk you want to take (I closed down my stream due to work pressures and a family bereavement, not because of copyright issues but another popular EDM station I worked with had to stop all its live shows (which where getting hundreds of listeners!) because it did get some warnings about copyright.
A great deal depends on your country's laws (and how much they are enforced!) the kind of music you play (many specialist genres and independent labels are not always registered with the copyright authorities) and how popular your station becomes.
A lot of popular trance/EDM labels *are* registered to the copyright authorities; but their legal teams often choose not to enforce the laws heavily (otherwise the whole EDM/rave scene would never have worked as if they are strictly applied even DJ's mixes are forbidden!) Similar happens with the Dutch "piratenhits" scene which combines streaming and real pirate broadcasts on FM bands, as well as the older hits/Schlager which are on major labels there are a lot of new independent tracks.
Beware though there are these startup companies that monitor all radio streams "on behalf of artists" and tip off copyright authorities. These are often the "bots" you might see constantly tuned in in your Centovacast panel; I've identified loads on the community radio streams for my district (admittedly those have to be registered to copyright and do run ads).
So it is up to you how much risk you want to take (I closed down my stream due to work pressures and a family bereavement, not because of copyright issues but another popular EDM station I worked with had to stop all its live shows (which where getting hundreds of listeners!) because it did get some warnings about copyright.
MedwayRadio
New Member
Its not just startup companies who carry out anti-piracy activities, PRS/ PPL have their own investigation units. PRS has its Member Anti-Piracy System (MAPS -- which tracks links to unlicensed and infringing sites, up to 5 million according to its website ) which can kick off take downs, google delistings etc etc near automatically.
PPL pays significant amounts of money to partner organisations (BPI & IFPI to name a couple) for anti-piracy activities.
Add to that Artists / Record companies initiating their own litigation (as Sony/WB did with TuneIn recently) unlicenced sources of music are being increasingly detected. Not to forget mention of rivalry/grudge from local sources which can kick off tip offs to the reporting phone lines. Have heard of this some years back when rival FM stations tried to take each down by one means or another.
As mentioned its up to individual whether they take the risk, similar to the situation in our local area some time back, where one man businesses such as nail bars, coffee shops, thought they didn't need a licence to play a radio until they got hit by PRS