Music industry targets podcasters

Podcasters are the latest group of people to be targeted by the music industry over the use of recorded music online.

If a ten-month trial is successful, they will be forced to pay a licence fee the amount of which depends on the tracks they use.

At the moment, few podcasters who include music in broadcasts pay royalties to the music industry. However all other commercial users of music, from pubs and bars to high-street shops that play music to customers, have to pay a small fee to the licensing authority, the Performing Right Society (PRS).

These fees are then distributes to the writers and musicians.

The new scheme is being run by the PRS and its online equivalent the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS). The fee for each podcast will be 12 per cent of gross revenues – but there is a minimum fee of 1.5p per track, or 0.75p per half-track.

The fee applies per download of the podcast – so if a podcast contains one song and is downloaded 1000 times the podcaster would be liable for £15 in fees.

A low-usage scheme will be available for podcasts with low revenues or usage levels, starting at £50 per quarter.

Although the scheme is only a trial, with a full launch planned in 2007, the MCPS-PRS said the trial is an 'educational process'.

It is hoping that podcasters will sign up voluntarily but a representative for the alliance warned: "There is a legal requirement there, because there are copyrights being used".

In case podcasters aren't convinced of the seriousness of this scheme, they should remember that both the MCPS and PRS can and have taken companies and people to court for non-payment of licence fees.

Details of fees can be found on the alliance's website.