Internet Radio & Regulation

Ofcom do not regulate online radio at all. In the United Kingdom, licensing comes via MCPS/PRS and PPL. If recall that PPL do have several requirements on repeat plays, which I’m sure somebody else will be able to detail more fully.

Overall online radio licensing is full of loopholes, not especially well enforced, and in dire need of an update to get in line with recent trends. The costs, for a start, are extortionate.

Ofcom do not regulate internet radio therefore you are free of their rules and regulations. If you are going to play commercial music you will need to be licensed by PRS/PPL and abide by their terms and conditions. I’ve not heard of a regulation against playing many tracks by 1 artist in an hour. Some commercial radio stations, for instance, will play an hour of Madonna or Kylie songs to mark a special occasions or concerts etc.

Also, for reference, here’s a radio station that plays only Beatles songs.

As a follow-up to my previous reply, I have found a 2012 letter sent to an online broadcaster from PPL UK on the repeat play restrictions bestowed upon them. The listed restrictions are:

No more than 3 plays from a particular album in any three-hour period
No more than 2 consecutive plays from a particular album in any three-hour period
No more than 4 plays from a particular artist in any three-hour period
No more than 3 consecutive plays from a particular artist in any three-hour period

How this works in practice, especially for stations like the one that Mike references above, I do not know (Edit: I notice that station is in the USA, so PPL UK rules would not apply to them). Then again, as I said:

Overall online radio licensing is full of loopholes

However, it’s clear at least that PPL UK state that stations should follow their rules on repeat plays.

@Dave Hedley, all those things listed in your post are indeed true and are used as a means of music regulations on internet stations. Most internet stations use cheaper playout systems that are capable of having scheduling software, for which they can be programmed in such a way to abide by those rules.

OfCom currently do not regulate internet radio (and I can’t see that they will ever be able to, unless they enforce an internet broadcasting licence, which will in effect reduce the number of online stations, leaving the ones who take it a bit more seriously to be on air and ridding us of the scurge of those who have Sam Broadcaster and a headset microphone in the spare bedroom who almost certainly do not pay for licences of any kind).

online radio format is growing but i agree its bedroom brigade are bringing its reputation down sam is a great tool and if its used right works well in a real studio environment

Are bedroom internet radio stations really a “scourge” of the industry? Any more so than YouTube videos of people’s pets are a scourge of the Hollywood blockbuster?

in my opinion bedroom DJ’s are not ALWAYS unlicensed or what you all a “scurge”. I also refute the claim that the bedroom brigade are bringing us all down.

There are some very good licensed stations that broadcast on the net and usually the presenter is a “bedroom dj”. albeit not all i will agree with you there. but some of these amateur presenters are also very good and put some of the so called pro’s in the shade.

I know of quite a few of these guys who put in a hell of a lot of effort and prep into their shows and have built up a massive following as a result, and most if not all would never broadcast on a station that cannot provide copies of the webcaster license

“Webcaster license?” You mean copies of the PRS, PPL and MCPS LICENCES (note the plural) to be able to legally broadcast on the net.

I certainly did not claim that the “bedroom brigade” are bringing everybody down, nor did I say that every one of the bedroom internet stations (or DJ’s) was a scurge. Unfortunately, for every good professional one that takes itself a little more seriously, you probably have several dozen (if not hundreds) who have no licences, a cheap (near telephone quality) microphone headset plugged into the computer and a playout system that they don’t know how to use properly, that’s probably also loaded with illegally downloaded MP3’s, so they can play at radio stations to impress their friends on Facebook.

In fact, the available licences for internet stations in the UK are quite restrictive. As well as the requirements Dave has noted, the EMI group of publishers aren’t signatory to the agreement which means that music published by Jobete (most of the Motown catalogue), Screen Gems (Monkees, anyone?), Virgin and Francis Day & Hunter are excluded. It’s probably time for professional internet broadcasters to get together and form a trade body to negotiate because the existing situation is farcical. Trouble is, with the bedroom kids in the majority, the voices of the professionals are being drowned out.

Tony I did not know that. I thought that the PRS/PPL/MCPS licences provided blanket coverage for every musician, writer, producer, publisher and record label. Then again, when it comes to music licences, the organisations that issue them do tend to lag behind, as disco and nightclub DJ’s know only too well when they had to fight to be legally allowed to play music from computers, instead of CD’s and those round black things.

By the way James, I’ve done my bit of changing my pic, how come I still look like a child molester on M-UK?