Internet radio licensing

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An Internet radio license is a specific type of broadcast license that allows the licensee to operate an Internet radio station. The licensing authority and number of licenses required varies from country to country, with some countries requiring multiple to cover various areas of a station's operation, and other countries not having stringent licensing procedures in place. Licensing costs also vary, based on the number of listeners that a station has, as well as other factors such as the number of songs played, the number of broadcast hours, and whether tracks are dubbed to a digital playout system.[ citation needed ]

Contents

Licensing fees for Internet radio have often been the subject of controversy. For example, in 1998, the passing of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act meant that US-based Internet radio and satellite radio stations would have to pay separate royalties to recording artists and sound recording copyright owners, unlike traditional over-the-air stations that paid royalties only for the use of the underlying musical works. This led to the creation of the SaveNetRadio.org petition group, [1] in addition to the proposal of the Internet Radio Equality Act.

In some countries, stations which broadcast via other mediums – for example, by AM, FM and DAB digital radio – typically must also obtain a separate broadcast license in order to simultaneously broadcast via the Internet.

Multimedia content is intellectual property. These regulations on this property differ from country to country; however, the general rule is that the station must own, or have a license to broadcast the content that is covered under copyright regulations. Content that has been released under some creative commons licenses, public domain or similar can be streamed with no special content licensing requirements. However the content licensed under non-free cultural Creative Commons licenses with non-commercial (NC) clause cannot be streamed if Internet broadcast station has any form of advertising, either in the stream or on the station website. [2]

Internet radio licensing by country

Netherlands

Internet radio licensing in the Netherlands is partially dealt with by the main Dutch royalty body BUMA/STEMRA, which charges a fixed fee in order for a station to broadcast via the Internet. [3]

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, Internet radio stations may obtain licenses from both the MCPS-PRS Alliance and Phonographic Performance Limited.[ citation needed ] These licences are optional, in that they are only required to compensate rights holders (a legal requirement). For a station broadcasting only libre or original content works, a licence isn't required to operate an internet radio station and no Ofcom Licence is required for Internet broadcasting.

Although the fees for the MCPS-PRS Alliance is largely fixed, the fees for Phonographic Performance Limited is calculated based on the number of tracks played per hour, in addition to the number of listeners (calculated via Internet radio audience measurement).[ citation needed ] In addition to these two main licenses, stations may also pay the PPL dubbing fee in order to store those tracks to a hard-drive or other storage device for playout,[ citation needed ] and the MCPS-PRS TV and Radio Advertisement License in order to use commercial copyrighted music in advertisements and promotional pieces.[ citation needed ] The multitude of licenses required, and the accumulative cost of them all, have priced many small stations out of running sustainably via Internet mediums with the exception of stations that play solely freely licensed content.

Hungary

In Hungary, internet radio stations must obtain licences both the Association of Hungarian Record Companies and the Artisjus Hungarian Copyright Protection Association [4] [ circular reference ]. [5] They have fixed fees, that means cca. 95 EUR per month together, plus 4% of the Income of the station. In 2015 Rendőrség (English: ′Guard of Order′ or Police) in coordinated action was raided more than 200 'illegal' stations, seized streaming servers, PCs. 1–2 years later the owners were charged with violation of copyright law. Since the new Media Law was adopted in 2011, Internet Stations must obtain a special licence from the NMHH (National Media and Communications Authority) by sending the exact schedule and financial plan. According to the plans, licensed internet radio stations are required to include music made in Hungary 35% of broadcasting time, and must send weekly reports from the aired contents to the Authority, like FM stations now.

North America

Neither the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States nor the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in Canada currently require a licence for broadcasts via the Internet originating in their respective countries. [6] [7] However, stations that play recorded music are required to pay licensing fees or royalties through ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC, depending upon which organization licensed the recording. SoundExchange also works with music industry partners in the United States and around the world to collect performance royalties generated through airplay on Internet radio stations.

Stations that broadcast only via the Internet may voluntarily register for a standardised identifier or call sign through Internet Radio Uniform Callsign (IRUC), [8] an industry organisation that provides the system as a means to efficiently catalog participating stations in the United States, Canada and Mexico; these call signs are not mandatory and are not a license to broadcast [9] and do not exempt the broadcaster from paying music licensing fees. IRUC's system utilizes standardised call sign prefixes as allocated by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). [10]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers</span> Non-profit performance-rights organization

The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadcasters, and digital streaming services.

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A copyright collective is a non-governmental body created by copyright law or private agreement which licenses copyrighted works on behalf of the authors and engages in collective rights management. Copyright societies track all the events and venues where copyrighted works are used and ensure that the copyright holders listed with the society are remunerated for such usage. The copyright society publishes its own tariff scheme on its websites and collects a nominal administrative fee on every transaction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PRS for Music</span> British music rights society

PRS for Music Limited is a British music copyright collective, made up of two collection societies: the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) and the Performing Right Society (PRS). It undertakes collective rights management for musical works on behalf of its 175,000 members. PRS for Music was formed in 1997 following the MCPS-PRS Alliance. In 2009, PRS and MCPS-PRS Alliance realigned their brands and became PRS for Music.

Station identification is the practice of radio and television stations and networks identifying themselves on-air, typically by means of a call sign or brand name. This may be to satisfy requirements of licensing authorities, a form of branding, or a combination of both. As such, it is closely related to production logos, used in television and cinema alike.

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The Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) is an organisation that collects royalties and protects rights for music publisher, song writer and composer members, when their music is reproduced, in any format – including online, physical and synchronised.

APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers in Australia and New Zealand. The two organisations work together to license public performances and administer performance, communication and reproduction rights on behalf of their members, who are creators of musical works, aiming to ensure fair payments to members and to defend their rights under the Australian Copyright Act (1968).

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Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) is a British music copyright collective. It is a private limited company that is registered in the UK. PPL was founded by Decca Records and EMI and incorporated on 12 May 1934, and undertakes collective rights management of sound recordings on behalf of its record-company members, and distributes the fees collected to both its record company members and performer members. As of 2022, PPL collected royalties for over 140,000 performers and recording rightsholders.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital DJ licensing</span> Type of music licence

A digital DJ licence is required in some countries, including the United Kingdom , Finland, Belgium and Italy, to publicly play digital copies of copyrighted music. The licence allows a DJ to copy music from original CDs, vinyl or other media, to a computer's hard drive, an MP3 player or other digital audio players, for example to be used with a vinyl emulation software program, or in some cases to other digital media, such as CD-R or MiniDisc. In the countries where digital DJ licensing is used, the licence is also required for playing music originally bought and downloaded directly on to a computer, usually in MP3 or similar format, unless the licence of the online music store explicitly allows the public performance of the downloaded tracks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet radio</span> Digital audio service transmitted via the Internet

Internet radio, also known as Online radio, web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio and IP radio, is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not transmitted broadly through wireless means. It can either be used as a stand-alone device running through the Internet, or as a software running through a single computer.

SomaFM is an independent Internet-only streaming multi-channel radio station, supported entirely with donations from listeners. SomaFM originally started broadcasting out of founder Rusty Hodge's basement garage in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, as a micropower radio station broadcast at the Burning Man festival in 1999. The response to the project was sufficiently positive that Rusty Hodge launched it as a full-time internet radio station in February 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SIAE</span> Italian copyright collecting organisation

The Italian Society of Authors and Publishers, commonly known by its acronym SIAE, is the Italian copyright collecting agency. Founded in 1882 in the Kingdom of Italy, it is the monopolist intermediary between the authors of musical tracks and consumers, managing the economic aspects and the distribution of money from royalties of Italian-copyrighted music to authors and on their behalf. In the 2000s and 2010s, SIAE was known for the controversial decision to claim payment through the "Private Copy Siae Tax" for every blank CD, DVD, and HDD sold in Italy since 2001. From 2013 to February 2015, the main spokesperson of the SIAE organization was the songwriter Gino Paoli, who was the president of the society. Paoli resigned after he was investigated for tax evasion; Filippo Sugar was then appointed as a president. The current president is Mogol, famous Italian lyricist.

Music royalties are royalty payments for the writing and performing of music. Unlike other forms of intellectual property, music has a strong linkage to individuals – composers (score), songwriters (lyrics) and writers of musical plays – in that they can own the exclusive copyright to created music and can license it for performance independent of corporates. Recording companies and the performing artists that create a "sound recording" of the music enjoy a separate set of copyrights and royalties from the sale of recordings and from their digital transmission.

References

  1. ↑ SaveNetRadio.org; the website is now a personal blog, no longer related to the original petition group
  2. ↑ David Childers (2011). Internet Broadcasters Information Handbook, Fifth Edition (PDF version)
  3. ↑ BUMA/STEMRA official website (Dutch language)
  4. ↑ Artisjus Wikipedia entry (in Hungarian) [ circular reference ]
  5. ↑ Artisjus website (English language)
  6. ↑ FCC Licensing Systems
  7. ↑ CRTC Broadcast Licensing Process
  8. ↑ Internet Radio Station Standardised Callsign Usage
  9. ↑ FAQ: "Is an IRUC callsign a broadcasting license?"
  10. ↑ ITU Table of International Call Sign Series
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