Song of The Week and license fees?

December 04, 2003 | Comments Closed

Summary: Keith, I enjoy your ‘song of the week’ feature and decided to have a go at my own (we have very different musical tastes so I wouldn’t be treading on your toes ;). Unfortunately, the Performing Rights Society here in the UK have a rather prohibitive pricing structure as far as licensing is concerned, which meant I had to knock the idea on the head. I have been wondering whether you have to pay a similar license fee? If so, how is it organized, do you pay by song or pay a quarterly fee etc. etc. ?

From Andy

I don’t pay any license fee at all. To be honest I’m not sure what the legalities involved with licensing of music are. Once, long ago, I looked into it and figured that what I was doing was probably alright. But I don’t remember the details.

I think as long as you stick to one song from an album and go no further than that my guess is you’ll be fine. I doubt the Performing Rights Society would go after you for something like this, but that is just a guess.

I’ve been doing a Flash player like this for years and I’ve never heard a peep about licensing. I’ve even gotten feedback and comments from artists I’ve featured who say they appreciate my efforts to help promote them.

Filed under: FAQs