Do I need lecences????????

I am looking to to have a radio show, however this will be completely none profit making & only on air for a 3 hour show per week (4 hour specials on occasions).
I know if a venue/public place and providing music for more than 5 people?you need the PPL (public performance licence) and in addition, if you use other media formats such as MP3's you need the Pro-dub licence?????????????

For the moment at least this is purely on a hobby basis, obviously if it did take of were it was making some form of income then yes I know expect to pay for appropriate licences.

I am new to internet radio and getting a headache trying to find out exactly is required from me so Im operating legally.

Im in the UK and all music has been either purchased online or ripped from CD to MP3 format.

Also are there reasonable deals out there that would allow me to pay purely for the 3 - 4 hours per week usage.
At this moment in time I dont know how many listeners there will be, although I would hope at least 30 or its simply a waste of my time and effort in providing the show.

Any help and advice is greatly received.

To broadcast the music you need permission from the Artist/Label and/or a license, it doesn't matter how few hours you are going to be on the air waves. The way you go about this all depends on what sort of music you are going to be playing during the show (sounds silly, but it's true).

Unsigned artists can be contacted directly, and so long as you have *WRITTEN* permission you can play their tracks.

Pop music artists, who are in the charts, you must contact their label and speak to them, and get permission that way. Again, you must get written permission from the label.

I hope that helps some what.

Hi,
Will just point out that there is a big flaw in the licensing for internet broadcasting.

If your listeners are listening from media streamed from a USA based server you technically do not fall under UK broadcasting (or at least you will have 1 listener, that being the USA server), and to this day i do not believe there is any solutions to this.

The best recommended way if to talk with artists, labels and management (be it unsigned or commercial) of any material you wish to play, if they allow you to do so that then that is fine, if not you must seek licensing out or not play music that you have not been told you are allowed to play.

We've always balanced this out and we are licensed now, however when you are starting out it can be confusing and costly, do not run straight into getting a license, always weigh your options up and always maintain an honest open relationship with artists/management/labels and you should be fine, internet broadcasters need to stay legal while also showing a united front otherwise the industry will be over-run by commercial/corporate stations.