Webcasting

Last Updated on July 23, 2008 by Chris Keppler

All stations that webcast copyrighted music must pay royalties to the copyright owners. There are multiple copyrights that apply. To keep it simple, CBI offers the following and welcomes questions concerning the details.

Paying the writers…

ASCAP, BMI and SESAC represent the vast majority of those who compose the music we hear. although there are others, including GMR. The composers are due a copyright fee when their works are performed on your station, regardless of whether it is webcast, broadcast or used in some other manner.

The good news is that most schools already posses a license to cover these fees and the station incurs no fiscal liability for the webcast. The two common exceptions to this apply to broadcast stations. College broadcast stations must also pay ASCAP and SESAC a broadcast fee, while the BMI license includes this fee in its ‘blanket’ license. Fortunately, most schools foot this bill as a part of the blanket license.

The good news is that ASCAP, SESAC and BMI include webcasting fees in the schools’ blanket license. In almost all cases, that means your webcasting activities do not cost the station any more money with respect to the writers.

Sound Recording Copyrights

Congress has passed laws that require stations that webcast to pay royalties for the “Sound Recordings.” This means that the performers of the musical compositions and those that hold the rights to their recordings (the record labels in most cases) need to be compensated when you webcast their music. The rates and terms associated with the use of the sound recording were heavily debated for a number of years in the early 2000s. CBI was among the leading organizations to press for a settlement and, eventually, Congress passed legislation that allowed small entities to negotiate a deal separate from the larger entities. CBI continues to play a significant role when rate adjustments are examined every few years.

CBI has been actively involved in the process of representing student stations, like yours, and has reduced or eliminated the recordkeeping burden via options which are now part of federal regulations due to our negotiated settlement and legal efforts.  The details of what we were able to negotiate and the choices you have are available to you as you read through other pages under our webcasting tab.  If you have questions, please call us or use our contact page to ask questions.