Flat Rate Licence

[airfm]

Is there such a thing of a flat rate licence for the small non-profit broadcaster ie we make no money infact it costs us to run the station,and if not who is the cheaps around Thanks

[saint]

You would have to check with the licensing agency for your country.

 

Are you broadcasting from Ireland ?

[airfm]

Yes tried to get an answer from IMRO our crowd but still no answer...

[MrBrandon]

You could always give Loudcaster or Live365 a shot. They each have DJ's from outside the US on them. Though that doesn't necessarily mean you've got all your bases covered in your home country.

[andhow]

APRA/AMCOS has a flat rate fee that they charge for non-for-profit & hobby radio stations. But you have to be broadcasting from Australia or New Zealand.

[jolly]

APRA/AMCOS has a flat rate fee that they charge for non-for-profit & hobby radio stations. But you have to be broadcasting from Australia or New Zealand.

 

Firstly, I know this is an older post but it seemed relevant still.

 

I've seen that, looks like it's $275 a year which is fantastic! Though in Australia you also have to deal with PPCA too...right? I'm really new to this, even though I have been reading up on this periodically over a couple of years; only dribs and drabs but never thought it was in the reach of anyone as a hobby until recently.

 

APRA|AMCOS: Online Mini Licence is $275 per year and then it also looks like you have to pay PPCA as well. In both cases you also need an ABN or so it seems.

 

If us Aussies also want any country to hear our broadcast (unless a country has a huge firewall that blocks us) do we need other coverage like streamlicensing?

 

I was going to create a new thread but since AUS broadcasting was mentioned here I thought I'd run with it.

 

Thanks,

jolly

[rsw]

If us Aussies also want any country to hear our broadcast (unless a country has a huge firewall that blocks us) do we need other coverage like streamlicensing?

 

I was going to create a new thread but since AUS broadcasting was mentioned here I thought I'd run with it.

 

Thanks,

jolly

 

Technically yes. If you are broadcasting to AU listeners then you need AU coverage. If you want to be strictly legal then you should geo-block all other countries outside of the areas covered by your AU licenses. Some countries have affiliations with other countries and so you can (sometimes for an additional fee) broadcast to those countries too.

 

The UK are a classic example of how difficult the like it to be because although PRS are ok, PPL I am told state that if you broadcast TO listeners in the UK then you need a license. However, if you do not have a correspondence address INSIDE the UK they won´t sell you a license! I know the same applies with some of the USA performing rights associations.

 

Streamlicensing.com is a very good option to cover the whole of the USA & Canada from just over $20 a month and I cannot recommend them enough. To go to all the USA associations individually would be a considerable investment and in some cases not even possible if you are not in the USA.

 

Summing up:

Ensure you are legal 100% in your home country and take our cover with Streamlicensing if you believe that your next biggest hit is going to be USA/Canada and keep a close eye on your stats and if you start getting regular listeners in certain areas then think about your plan for that area... geo-block, license etc.

 

To be honest I find the whole thing a little crazy... I mean... royalties that are paid on a "flat rate" scheme often require no reporting whatsoever so if anyone here can tell me how they dish out the money I would be keen to know. If I play "Money Money Money" from Abba and use streamlicensing and 100 people hear that song then ABBA and those associated with the song get their due for 100 performances....because streamlicensing log every track along with listener stats so...a couple of questions to be answered really by someone who knows are

 

1) If a station pays through one country who logs every performance the artist gets paid for every performance. Why is there a need to be registered in other countries? Unless you want to pay double you would split your stream so, for example if 95 listeners were in the USA and 5 in UK what difference is it if they get 100 (billionths of a cent lol) from USA or 95 from USA and 5 from UK? The appropriate people get their dues... from whatever source!

 

and

 

2) How the heck to flat fee licenses ensure that the artists you play get paid when they have no reporting requirements? What sort of staff xmas party´s do they have at some of these associations (just curious)

[andhow]

Firstly, I know this is an older post but it seemed relevant still.

 

I've seen that, looks like it's $275 a year which is fantastic! Though in Australia you also have to deal with PPCA too...right? I'm really new to this, even though I have been reading up on this periodically over a couple of years; only dribs and drabs but never thought it was in the reach of anyone as a hobby until recently.

 

APRA|AMCOS: Online Mini Licence is $275 per year and then it also looks like you have to pay PPCA as well. In both cases you also need an ABN or so it seems.

 

If us Aussies also want any country to hear our broadcast (unless a country has a huge firewall that blocks us) do we need other coverage like streamlicensing?

 

I was going to create a new thread but since AUS broadcasting was mentioned here I thought I'd run with it.

 

Thanks,

jolly

 

There is a composer's license, which in this part of the globe is APRA/AMCOS, then there is a mechanical or a performance license. In New Zealand the body that governs that is PPNZ. So you usually have to pay two license fees. We broadcast both an internet stream and a FM broadcast, so we have to pay a license fee for each broadcasting method to each licensing body. If you think you can just "get away with it" both APRA/AMCOS and PPNZ approached me with invoices not long after I started broadcasting. So they do monitor the internet for broadcasts. I have not had my IPs blocked in the US or the EU. I did read that the UK is planning on blocking IP addresses of any station not licensed for broadcast in that country, but I have not seen it happen yet. I assume that their train of thought is that if you are a hobby station and paying your fees, then they usually don't split hairs to get you to pay more. I was also under the impression that it depends on where you are broadcasting from as well.

[Brutish Sailor]

RSW:

 

For #2) Yes they do report. They track the streams metadata. They snag the artist Tag from the metadata, cross-refference it to a Database, and thats how all the royaltys are paid to the appropriate organizations.

 

 

As for #1) Your not paying royalty's by WHO gets played, jurisdiction of royalty org is ultimately determined by region. Listeners in the uk= PPS, etc. Its A LOT more compicated to that, and unfortunately, theres not a very good road map to figuring this all out.

 

good spot to watchdog your royalty coverages is broadcastlawblog.com

 

I visit there religiously. Huge fan.

[rsw]

RSW:

 

For #2) Yes they do report. They track the streams metadata. They snag the artist Tag from the metadata, cross-refference it to a Database, and thats how all the royaltys are paid to the appropriate organizations.

 

 

As for #1) Your not paying royalty's by WHO gets played, jurisdiction of royalty org is ultimately determined by region. Listeners in the uk= PPS, etc. Its A LOT more compicated to that, and unfortunately, theres not a very good road map to figuring this all out.

 

good spot to watchdog your royalty coverages is broadcastlawblog.com

 

I visit there religiously. Huge fan.

 

I will check out that web url... it´s some time since I personally was involved in setting up any uk agreements but back in the day when that was my job I don´t recall providing port id´s etc to the UK auths, just websites... obviously USA such as streamlicensing pull meta data but the UK don´t as far as I am aware.. in fact they actually advertise their small webcaster as "no reporting". I think PPL ask for quarterly TLH reporting but no track listings... PRS are even less involved... you pays, you plays!

 

Obviously when you move up a notch to their bigger packages they do ask for reporting in depth but their rules for the small webcasters are pretty simple... if you earn less than 5k (i think) and have less than X hours of listeners or performances you pay each year and thats it.

 

We set up a lot f US stations with streamlicensing and their system monitors your stream... to the point where.. if a client comes from another to us and their IP changes they are alerted the stream isnt validating ... they really do monitor every track and ask for reporting for syndicated shows or tracks with no meta but unless I am wrong and things have changed this is not how the uk systems work... maybe I am wrong!