Our Mission Statement
At The UK 1940s Radio Station our mission has always been to provide a free non subscription service to promote this wonderful music by playing the original recordings and also by supporting the musicians and singers today that all come together to authentically recreate this music for us all to enjoy at concerts and dances. We have had the pleasure of working with many of the finest musicians and singers in the United Kingdom that devote their working lives to keeping this music going against all the odds, and indeed we are so proud to have Tony Jacobs and Bob Kerr who both donate some of their precious time to present shows for us. It is very sad that traditional radio stations tend not to play much of this music nowadays because the demand is not such as to make it financially viable. So it is down to a hand full of stations such as ours to try and keep this music going. No small task but for me knowing that you all appreciate all of our efforts is more then enough encouragement for us to continue to provide this service for as long as we possibly can.
Payment Of Music Royalties
A small insight to some of the legal issues and costs involved in running an internet radio station and playing copyrighted audio material.
In the UK it is ilegal to play copyrighted music without permission. An Internet Radio Station is charged in a different manner than a traditional radio station: two direct chargeable fees in association with every individual performance of a song. An individual performance is classed as each individual stream we send out to each listener of the one song. Yes folks that means that if one person is listening to the song we are charged for one performance of the song. If 1000 people are listening to one performance of the same song we are charged for 1000 performances for playing the same song once. The first costs encountered are the royalties that must be paid to the record companies for playing each song if still in copyright. The cost due per song is calculated as previously described and is payable to PPL who colect the fee on behalf of the record companies. A second fee calculated on the same basis is also payable to PRS, who collect fees on behalf of the composer of the music and the author of the Lyrics of the song. It is debatable how much of the fees collected actually get to the composers, performers and record companies after the administration costs are deducted from the proceeds.
In our case we do not need to pay PPL for the public performance of the music we play because we do not play any sound recording that were first published and performed in public under 50 years ago. All of our music recordings are over 50 years of age and are now out of copyright in the United Kingdom.
In addition to the royalties paid per performance the internet radio station is penalized by also having to pay an increased royalties tariff based on the revenue the station receives.
We always obtain permission directly from the artists and recording companies for any sound recordings we use that are still in copyright, thus not needing to involve PPL for featuring and promoting our chosen artists on the station
Legalisation has recently gone through the European Parliament that is extending the copyright term for sound recordings from the existing 50 years to 75 years for sound recordings still in copyright from 1963. The extension of copyright will not apply to recordings already out of copyright.
The next proportional cost encountered is the cost of transmitting the audio stream to our listeners who could be using a computer, mobile phone or internet radio to listen to us. We send out three different streams with different bit rates from our studio to our servers, strategically placed in different geographically placed data centers to ensure that our listeners can listen to us at a suitable bit rate. We buy server capacity in blocks of 100 listener slots. To cover the cost of networking streaming and licensing costs alone we need to raise at least £2.50 per listener tuned in for 12 hours per day per month. Obviously we have many other costs to meet not included here.
Traditional radio stations do have huge setup costs but do not pay royalties based on numbers listening but only a percentage of their income revenue. Also traditional radio stations do not have a per listening cost associated with each person using a traditional radio to tune into the stations broadcast. The transmitters initial cost and broadcast license cost is only proportional to the geographical area the transmitter will cover, so in effect the more people listening to one transmitter reduces the cost per listener, the direct opposite to internet radio. Also the royalties traditional radio stations pay are calculated in a fairer way. As already mentioned a traditional radio station pays royalties calculated in relation to the station's financial performance.
In conclusion the cost per listener of an online radio station increases with every listener tuned in, making it financially impossible to support the same number of listeners as a traditional radio station. The only advantage is that the initial setup costs are far less then the traditional radio station.
Shaun Moncaster
Producer of The UK !940s Radio Station |
