Legally playing music without a licence.

[TuneVibez]

Hey, my name is Andrew and I am very into social media, YouTube and enjoy internet radio. I have now bought a server and have done some tests and posted the link onto twitter and I got about 15-20 listeners.

Instead of buying the licences and making a station similar to thousands already out there I am planning to speak to a lot of internet musicians to make some deals.

Most of the time we would play these artists original music but sometimes we would play cover songs they have recorded. In a legal sense if we name the original artist and who ever needs to be named could we play covers?

Thanks
-Andrew from TuneVibez

 

[Support]

We are not sure on this one. DiscoDave is pretty hot on licensing regulations and might be able to offer some advice :nerd:

 

[TuneVibez]

I hope someone else replies soon as I have started emailing artists.
I really want this to be a unique radio station.

 

[DiscoDave]

You only require PPL/PRS licences if you are playing songs that are covered by these licences. (e.g. commercially available music)

If however you play music by a local band who cover a song that is commercially available, then unless the band have permission to cover it then it is illegal. You are copying someone else's work without a licence. You would also need a PPL/PRS licence if you broadcast this cover version.

Any band that writes their own material and is happy for you to play it, then no licence would be required.

Hope this helps.

 

[TuneVibez]

Thank you

Thank you, we are talking to internet bands and artists. I have talked to lot's we have loads of their own music found a few covers which they had put on iTunes and they said they had permission.
The small record label DFTBA has said we can use their music, so has a number of other popular artists. so thats good. Thank you for your support.