2prfm.com Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Hello all in radio land. I'm trying to find out some information about the legality of what a radio station plays. In particular, I'm trying to locate any official documentation, that denotes the following. It is part of a radio station's responsibility to have in it's possession the physical medium of every track in it's digital library. There seems to be some serious issues with this concept as: 1. Record companies seriously neglect their back catalog material, meaning that much retro music is unavailable to buy. 2. Having a track library of 12,000 songs, and still counting, it would be impossible to tally up what tracks I do have the physical copy of, and what ones I don't. 3. Where is the responsibility for the record companies to have the material available in the first place? Just for example, doing a search on Chris Rea's album "Music History" shows all the results as torrents, there is not one result that leads me to a place to purchase it. http://au.search.yahoo.com/search?n=10&ei=UTF-8&va_vt=any&vo_vt=any&ve_vt=any&vp_vt=any&vd=all&vst=0&vf=all&vm=p&fl=0&p=%22Chris+Rea%22+%22Music+history%22+Greatest&vs= I've manage to buy up some cheap vinyl copies of stuff that I can't find on CD, but the above law is a laugh. I'm wanting to find the exact text of the law, so I can bring it to the attention of my local MP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
galaxymatt Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 i don't think this law exists , atleast not anymore. 1. Music can now be bought in a digital format that doesn't require a CD or Tape so you won't need a cd or tape to prove that you have purchased the songs. 2. A CD is a digital medium although yes it does physicaly exist, but so does a hard drive. I think what your thinking comes from the legality that to have a copy of a song , you should have the original that you purchased (regardless if you are a radio station or not) . so if you bought a cd and then put those files onto your computer you should keep the cd. But as you can download most songs from the internet (legaly) you can have the files on your computer without having a CD. It also works the other way around , if you buy a song online and copy it onto a cd , you would need to keep the original file that you downloaded. also radio stations aren't really goverened by laws but by regulating bodies. for example , if you are an FM broadcaster in the UK you would be regulated by Ofcom , so you would read through their documentation to see if this regulation exists. If you are an internet station you aren't regulated by any authourity other than the laws of your country (e.g in the UK, the DMCA would require you to have permission from the copyright owner to share copyrighted music , as ppl and prs collect royalties on behalf of most record companies in the uk , you would be required to get a license from those or go to the record companies directly. ) http://galaxy247.net/files/outreach_4.gif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SykesBrett Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 What i dont understand is why do you need a licance to play music. Your not earning any money from playing there tracks so why do they insist that we pay them. Stupid if you ask me Always here to help...Don't forget to REP if I have helped you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
galaxymatt Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Anyone that makes a public performance of a copyright track has to pay royalties. A license is a grant of permission , by having a license the record company or PPL are saying you now have permision to play this song in a public environment. Basicly, if you didn't make it , somebody else did and it's upto them on what terms they allow u to use it. http://galaxy247.net/files/outreach_4.gif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andhow Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 No, you don't have to have a physical copy anymore. Especially with the advent of apps like MPE Player and DMDS that Universal & EMI use to distribute music now. You DO have to be licensed. If you aren't, they will find you eventually and the fines are pretty steep. Play by their rules or get busted. It is that simple. I pay my fees and also have the auditing and reporting anytime that it is required. It is not that hard to do. Just the way you are supposed to run a radio station. It was that way before there was the internet. Can you imagine the logistics of reporting before a database application was used or even invented?!?! We were one of the many original internet radio stations that helped fight for the licensing agreements that we have today. If the RIAA would have had it's way, there would be no non-commercial radio stations. Pay your fees. If you can't afford to, then you should really look into another line of business. Reverend Aquaman | Station Manager | andHow.FM Where it's *ALL* about the music! A world-class, always eclectic, commercial-free, alternative, modern, retro, indie rock radio station. Jamming the free world, one person at a time since 1998. Got Indie? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SouthOMike Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 We at Golden Radio International mainly use Creative Commons music; found at a variety of sites, but mainly from Jamendo.com. As we are a free station and do not play any of the mainstream acts such as The Beatles, Aerosmith or Pink Floyd, there are no license fees at all. Many wrinkle their noses at the thought of not knowing who the artists are, but, like anything else, if you listen long enough they grow on you... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesdean Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 We at Golden Radio International mainly use Creative Commons music; found at a variety of sites, but mainly from Jamendo.com. As we are a free station and do not play any of the mainstream acts such as The Beatles, Aerosmith or Pink Floyd, there are no license fees at all. Many wrinkle their noses at the thought of not knowing who the artists are, but, like anything else, if you listen long enough they grow on you...That's great, our friend Arfa had a show on a station (the name escapes me now) which only played royalty free music, unsigned artists etc.. and they do very well and some great music also but I only listened when Arfa was on as he is such a great presenter and has been since the 1970s. Keep up the good work chaps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andhow Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 Thanks Mike, I will have a look at Jamendo. We don't play many mainstream artists either just due to the nature of our format. We play mostly indie artists, but we also get regular alternative/modern rock releases from Universal Music group and EMI. We have had a positive response from a number of indie record labels and and few artists directly. There are also quite a few indie rock music blogs that have a treasure trove of music available. As far as being legal and licensed, the licensing fees are really cheap considering the amount of music that we get from the record companies in return for compliance! I have to spend a quite a few hours each week just auditioning all of the new music that we get. Reverend Aquaman | Station Manager | andHow.FM Where it's *ALL* about the music! A world-class, always eclectic, commercial-free, alternative, modern, retro, indie rock radio station. Jamming the free world, one person at a time since 1998. Got Indie? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SouthOMike Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 You're welcome. We always appreciate more people stopping by to view the artists. From Ambient to Zydeco (well, maybe that'd be a stretch) all types of music can be found there and all absolutely free, excecpt if you want to use a track for your answering machine or to put in a commercial video. I've found some decent artists at archive.org and isound.com... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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