unsigned music

You would not require a license if you intend on only playing unsigned music and you also have permission from the creators. You may also wish to get some kind of written approval from the owners to do so. At least that way you are fully covered should you need to be in any case. ;)
 
Well I play mostly unsigned/pre-release music and tracks which aren't signed for royalty purposes - as little as 5% or less at the time of broadcast, but I still have to have a license..

Best to play safe rather than get caught - because they will prosecute!
 
hauntedcornwallfm said:
if i lay totally unsigned origianl music do i need a license for this
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Support said:
You would not require a license if you intend on only playing unsigned music and you also have permission from the creators. You may also wish to get some kind of written approval from the owners to do so. At least that way you are fully covered should you need to be in any case. ;)
Click to expand...

Party Vibe often gets emails for the new promo tracks directly from the labels (although its not legally classed as a British station, nor is VFR Europe). In both cases these stations operations aren't "offshored" to be evasive, more for technical reasons.

ICR-FM (a licensed FM community station) similarly gets loads of tracks - to the point I wish that some promoters really wouldn't send whole large MP3s via the studio email address, as broadband in UK isn't so good and there are better ways of getting them to our presenters especially for local bands! This station is British and licensed by PRS/PPL (though they only ask for the average hours and track times and not very detailed reports, especially when some of our shows contain tracks all mixed together by DJs), and also has to comply to Ofcom rules.

Once they had a big fault with electric power in a studio forcing it off air, so I ended up relaying Party Vibe through ICR-FM, I had to report this to the Station Manager as I was relaying "foreign radio" and this has to be noted (even though Ofcom's rules are its better to play any kind of suitable programme material in emergency than transmit a carrier dead air!)

Be careful though that the actual artist, producer and copyright owner might not be the same person, even on smaller music scenes.

A friend of mine got in minor trouble as he made a remix of a crossover punk/ska/dance track and shared it online, only to get a warning email from the copyright holder that it was unauthorised. I grew up with the impression that this was tolerated more on these scenes, I was surprised by this, even more so when he sent me a copy of the email and it appeared the band had auctioned off its copyright to the tracks to a separate private company (perhaps to raise cash for studio kit/instruments or whatever else?)

So its worth investigating this and checking with all band members or producers/agents - especially as when times are hard its more likely one or more band members will be more anxious to try and raise cash and they might not tell the others - also its not often the old rock stars or "popdinosaurussen" (that excellent word was in an online Dutch lesson :D) but younger musicians and/or rival commercial stations (terrestrial or online) who report stuff to the authorities.
 
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