Library music on radio

[soundsville]

Hello vultures,

A question I have been wondering about for awhile now. I know that if you use library music in an ad, one must pay royalties for each time it is played. But if you play an entire track as part of your playlist on the air, is it illegal?

David S.

[Lord Thames]

I've wondered about this myself - I think in the old days of needletime restrictions, the BBC used to use a lot of Mozart Edition tracks (but these were probably taken off Coded Music discs - whether that affects anything, I don't know!)

I think generally, as long as you play by the rules and pay any royalties necessary, you should be safe unless the library specifically says no (Regency Line LPs say they're not to be used for non-needletime purposes on radio) - but it might be worth checking it out anyway.

Oh, a couple of years back, the Radio 2 series 'Legends Of Light Music' featured a few otherwise unavailable library tracks, so it must be possible to use them in a radio show somehow!

[sermad]

Radio stations log every track they play on air. This is so the royalties can be calculated per artist.

I also know that major stations pay blanket royalties to all the big record companies to cover ALL their royalty costs over the year.

Playing the songs on the radio is a bit funny though as there is no criteria for this in the MCPS rate card! Tis a funny one.

[nosoul]

if you contact the company you can usually do a deal..dewolfe for instance will let you reproduce a full track for £200