Years ago, if I remember correctly, there was a provision in the then current law that if an Internet station played copyrighted music under certain limitations of artist/album/song played less frequently within a certain timeframe, that paying royalties were not required.

In todays world, I am certain that those loopholes do not exist. However, I cannot seem to find where to get definitive royalty information for an Internet radio station that does not have any income and never has more than 5-10 listeners and streams a wide selection of randomly SAMBC generated playlists.

I know about the services that one can run their station through the service's portal and pay royalties from that, but I really do not want to do that, preferring to stream direct. One of them went defunct over a year ago.

Can anyone give me an idea of what the current rules are? Or point me to a definitive source to get those rules?

_________________
DJ VetteRacer
Owner/Operator
xStream-Radio - Serious Rock for Music Enthusiasts
www.xStream-Radio.net

The definitive source for all that information is the law of your country.
I presume you're from the US, so for you that is the Copyright law of the United States of America aka Title 17 of the United States Code + several amendments. (As far as I understand it, the original copyright law from 1976 is called Title 17 and each of the amendments updates/adds parts to it, so to be super pedantic you'd have to read the original copyright law and then check the amendments in order to see which parts of the original and earlier amendments is still valid and what was updated/replaced/added later on, but thankfully there's this neat document where some US-authority has collected all the updates and compiled a human readable version - I barely understand anything in there, but that's probably because english is not my first language and has nothing to do with it being legalese bullshit)
https://www.copyright.gov/title17/title17.pdf

_________________
Benedikt Bauer - SVS (Spacial Volunteer Support)

Shop for readymade PAL scripts by countrywesterndj - Or get a custom script made by me (or others)

My Project:
Send "Now Playing" from SAM to Twitter and/or Facebook | Sourcecode

Maybe I misunderstood. So the 448 page document you sent a link on is the human readable version? You don't understand it, not because English isn't your first language, but because NOBODY can understand it. That's why there are lawyers.

Has anyone on this forum done a simple analysis on the current US copyright law and royalties as it pertains to streaming music? I would assume that there are streamers that do not generate revenue but stream music outside of the services like StreamLicensing which is no longer.

_________________
DJ VetteRacer
Owner/Operator
xStream-Radio - Serious Rock for Music Enthusiasts
www.xStream-Radio.net

_________________
Benedikt Bauer - SVS (Spacial Volunteer Support)

Shop for readymade PAL scripts by countrywesterndj - Or get a custom script made by me (or others)

My Project:
Send "Now Playing" from SAM to Twitter and/or Facebook | Sourcecode

If you paid Streamlicensing, apparently they pocketed the money, got sued by ASCAP, BMI, et al, and got out of Dodge.

Isn't that awesome...

Would there be an alternative way to broadcast music legally, then? I'd look for it, but I'm overdue for a report on the state of the market for these Athens house https://tranio.com/greece/attica/athens/detached/ and have to work on that... But it should be done in a couple days, so in the worst case scenario, I'll look it up then.

LOL

Others may be waiting for choice RE opportunities in Northern California forest.

I don't think this vendor-specific forum is your best choice for looking for US-specific alternatives to broadcast licensing.
There's a Facebook group called Internet Radio Broadcasting Tech & Tips that also deals with licensing and there's generic forums like broadcastingworld that are more focused on the general "how to do broadcasting" than the product support we do here.

_________________
Benedikt Bauer - SVS (Spacial Volunteer Support)

Shop for readymade PAL scripts by countrywesterndj - Or get a custom script made by me (or others)

My Project:
Send "Now Playing" from SAM to Twitter and/or Facebook | Sourcecode

I would suggest live365.com.

As to your other question.....

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) are a set of rules for internet broadcasters based in the United States.

This is only a partial list. For the complete list of rules, please visit http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/hr2281.pdf

Scheduling
- In any three-hour period:
You should not intentionally schedule more than three songs (and not more than two songs in a row) from the same album.
You should not intentionally schedule more than four songs (and not more than three songs in a row) from the same artist.
- Continuous looped programs must be three or more hours long.
- Rebroadcasts of programs may be performed at scheduled times as follows:
Programs of less than one hour: no more than three times within two weeks.
Programs longer than one hour: no more than four times within two weeks.

Requests
- Your station can not be part of an "interactive service" such as playing listener requests within one hour of the request, or at a time designated by the listener. You can use the "Request Delay" setting on the Requests Settings page.
- You can not publish advance schedules or use other means to pre-announce when particular sound recordings will be played. Using the Station Dashboard and Schedule are for station operators only and not for listeners.

Miscellaneous
- You should only broadcast sound recordings that are authorized for performance in the United States.
- You should pass through (and not disable or remove) identification or technological protection information included in the sound recording (if any).

So, if you configure SAM to follow the scheduling parameters listed above, do not take requests, and follow the miscellaneous section, then you do not have to pay royalties?

_________________
DJ VetteRacer
Owner/Operator
xStream-Radio - Serious Rock for Music Enthusiasts
www.xStream-Radio.net

I am not an attorney. I will not attempt to give any legal advice.

I will only say, that it is my understanding, that if you pay royalties (either with the PRO(s) directly or with someone who can give you a "blanket" agreement as to the payment of royalties) - and - you follow the rules above to the best of your ability, you might avoid a lawsuit.

Royalties - must - be paid.

for more, you might consider visiting -

https://www.soundexchange.com/service-provider/licensing-101/

and

https://help.live365.com/support/solutions/folders/43000560724