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Issues in Licensing Music for Podcasts

Even amateur podcasters know that there are legal concerns with podcasting music. As the law stands now, a podcaster must secure permission for every copyrighted sound-recording master. This would be extremely time-consuming and expensive ' even for NPR, let alone individual podcasters. On the other hand, acquiring the rights to use the songs embodied in podcasts may not be as big a problem because the statutory compulsory license applicable to the mechanical reproduction of musical compositions probably applies to podcasts. In addition, blanket public-performance licenses are already offered by ASCAP, BMI and SESAC.

16 minute read July 28, 2005 at 03:27 PM
By
Steve Gordon
Issues in Licensing Music for Podcasts

A podcast is essentially a radio show consisting of audio content that listeners can download online. Listeners can also subscribe to a podcast show and every time a new program is posted, it automatically downloads to the subscriber's computer and connected MP3 player to be heard any time.

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