Why You Need To Learn About Music Licensing Before You Start an Internet Radio Station

While it may seem like an easy task in today’s “AutoTune-driven” music industry, making real music is pretty hard. You cannot just fuse rhythms and genres to create beats and melodies and label it music. There are various steps involved in music production, each just as important as the other. There is songwriting, arranging, tracking, editing, mixing, and mastering. Considering the countless nights a real musical artist is going to be awake at night perfecting their music and the money they will pour into it, it is no wonder that every music which is produced today is copyrighted. This is to ensure that the creators of the piece in question are rightly acknowledged and credited. 

It is because of this copyright that you cannot use any random song to fill out the music programming on your radio station. Listening to music online is hugely different from broadcasting it through an online radio station. You cannot broadcast songs that you listen to on common digital platforms such as YouTube and Spotify.   

Music Licensing: The only way to use copyrighted music on radio stations

Just to be clear: copyright does not mean that you cannot use licensed music on your online radio station at all. That being said, if you have to use copyrighted music, you will have to pay a fee to broadcast the music. 

Thinking about how much to pay and which licensing agency to pay to? Well, that would depend on certain factors. These may include: 

• The country you live in.
• The countries you are broadcasting to. 
• The kind of music you want to broadcast.
• Whether your online station accepts advertising.  

Then there are songs that have a Creative Commons (CC) license. This license is granted to the composers who decide to freely distribute their compositions for further use. While such songs are considered safe to use, the broadcasters should either double-check with the artist or consult a lawyer before playing the music on their online radio stations. 

Popular platforms offering subscriptions and licensing package 

There are a number of websites where you can find great music for your online radio station. These websites also offer subscriptions and licenses that you can buy to broadcast their music. Some of the most popular platforms that offer subscriptions and licensing packages for music include: 

1. American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP)

ASCAP is a society of more than 800,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers. It licenses the songs and scores to the businesses that want to play them publicly. If you want to play their songs on your internet radio station, you can buy their specialized license for internet radio stations called a New Media license. 

2. Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) 

Known to bridge the gap between music makers and music users, BMI is another popular music rights organization. You can obtain their digital license to play famous songs on your online radio station. 

3. The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) 

If you have a SOCAN license, you can legally broadcast music through your radio station. You can pay the license fee to SOCAN for the public performance of music either via cue sheets for individual performances or blanket licenses for all music performances within a given time period. 

4. Society of European Stage Authors and Composers (SESAC)

SESAC is also a renowned Performing Rights Organization that protects the rights of the music creators granted by The Copyright Law of the United States. You can buy the SESAC license to broadcast music of the world’s top songwriters, composers, and music publishers.  

5. SoundExchange 

SoundExchange is another popular platform that can provide you with a license for the public performance of music. More than 3,600 digital radio providers are dependent on the organization’s statutory license to access various types of commercially available sound recordings.   

Obtaining a music license before broadcasting music on your online radio station is extremely important as it will save you from committing costly legal mistakes and keep your listeners engaged. 

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