We received a call this week asking us what the law is on streaming music over the internet and how you go about getting a license. After giving out the necessary advice we realised that we had no information about this around the website. In this post you will find everything you need to know about the licenses you will need to stream music, or any kind of sounds for that matter, over the internet.
Unless what you are broadcasting is your own material then it is imperative that you purchase a license. You can get a license from the PPL Website where you can decide what type of license you need. There are two types of Online Radio Station licenses on offer. Small Webcaster License or Standard Webcaster license.
Small Webcaster license
To qualify for the small webcaster license your annual revenue will need to be less than £5,000 and your station will need to play more than 270,000 songs per year. The cost for one of these licenses are as follows:
(a) £156.06 as a non-refundable advance against Webcasting royalties in respect of each channel in the service
(b) £23.41 as a non-refundable advance against Dubbing royalties in respect of each channel in the service
To find out more about the Small Webcaster license, click here
Standard Webcaster License
Anything over the small webcaster license requires you to buy the standard license. The price for this license is £928.25. To find out more click here