Licensing and Royalty Requirements for Webcasters: Details and Deadlines

3/24/2009
This Advisory is intended specifically to help guide individuals and companies, that wish to distribute recorded music over the Internet for pleasure or profit, through the maze of licenses and royalties required for such “webcasting” activities. It discusses the recent settlement agreements entered into between SoundExchange and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (“CPB”) and the National Association of Broadcasters (“NAB”). For certain commercial radio stations considering whether to take advantage of the NAB/SoundExchange settlement, April 2, 2009 is a critical “opt-in” deadline.

Music licensing has always been a complex and controversial subject. The rise of the Internet has served to take this complexity and controversy to a whole new level. The last several years have seen a multitude of developments in online music, both in the types and successes of music-related websites and in the laws and regulations governing music copyrights.

A PDF version of this entire article can be found at Licensing and Royalty Requirements for Webcasters: Details and Deadlines.