Podcast Nation: MCPS-PRS £200 Annual UK Podcast License

This press release from MCPS-PRS, the two main recognised UK copyright and repertoire institutions, dated 3rd March 2006, recently appeared on the PRS site. The licensing scheme as presented is said to have started on March 1st.

According to the MCPS-PRS scheme, the minimum fee for using licensed music in podcasts will amount to £200 per year. Even if podcasters use totally podsafe (royalty free) music and record their own voice, they will soon be subject to licensing and have to pay to podcast for the rest of 2006.

Podcasting licence

The MCPS-PRS Alliance has launched a new licensing solution for music podcasters. The joint MCPS and PRS scheme allows podcasters access to the global repertoire of musical works represented by the Alliance – some ten million musical works – granting the necessary writer/publisher permissions for inclusion of their works within the podcast.

The license is the first serious attempt by a European collecting society to support the growth of music podcasting.

The license is being made available until the end of 2006, during which time both podcasters and the Alliance will learn more about each other’s needs. A more complete scheme is planned for launch in early 2007.

"Podcasts that generate low levels of revenue and usage are also catered for by the Alliance. Podcasting is being incorporated into the updated Limited Online Exploitation Licence (LOEL) being launched in the second quarter of 2006, where royalty rates begin from as little as £50 a quarter.

Non-music podcasts (e.g. predominantly speech with very little music) will be licensed under a new on-demand scheme for non-music services which is being prepared for launch at the end of April 2006."

PRS-MCPS have also introduced a set of "podcasting rules" which if applied strictly will impact upon podcasters' creative freedom and could restrict the development of new content formats:

"Podcaster shall:

obscure at least 10 (ten) seconds at the beginning and end of each individual track played in a podcast with speech or a station ID;

deliver podcasts only in their entirety, not individual tracks or portions of a podcast;

ensure that music constitutes no more than 80% of the total length of any Programme;

ensure that the podcast is at least 15 minutes in length; and

take all reasonable steps to ensure that individual tracks within a podcast are not capable of being ripped and that metadata or other information or data transmitted or downloaded by the podcaster is not used to identify recordings for download from unauthorised databases or sites.

produce podcasts that contain recordings from a single artist or that have more than 30% of the musical works written by the same composer or writing partnership;

play any individual track more than once in any single Programme;

provide an electronic guide to the podcast which contains tracks played and corresponding times;

insert any flags or other markers in the podcast which may directly indicate or which may be used to indirectly infer the start and end point of tracks or segments of copyright content;

incorporate repertoire works into advertising; or

use the Repertoire in such a way as may be taken to imply that any goods or services are endorsed, advertised or associated with the Repertoire or any artist whose performance is contained on the Repertoire or any other party who owns rights in connection with the Repertoire. "