For awhile now, I had been listening to a radio station via internet.

It was out of Scottsdale, AZ 103.9 The EDGE, It had a really good morning show, and played alternative music through out the day.

Everyday I would link to it and listen to one day NO CONNECTION.

I then emailed the Director at the station. This was his reply.


Hi Heather;

We have discontinued our web streaming of KEDJ for now. Recently the federal government decided on fees that companies would be required to pay for streaming music content on the internet. The cost is simply too high for our company to pay.

It is possible that the governments ruling will be appealed to lower fees. If that occurs and the fees are reasonable we would consider streaming again. Sorry.

Scot Fey


** Anyway not sure how I could take action here, but I would like to write the FCC or something..**

From what I've heard, and this happened to two stations I listened to, the issue was that the voice talents of some of the nationally run commercials were unhappy that they were not getting royalties on the commercials being played to additional market on the internet.

A lot of stations ended up setting their webcast up so that some neutral music played whenever those adds are on, so they have now returned. Both of mine did.

The local station that plays Lakers games did the same thing.

Question...

If I am running an 'internet station' what do I need to do, in terms of permits, etc, that allows me to play songs that I do not own the copyrights to?

Every day when I come home from work, I turn on my computer and click on WinAmp. I listen to the Symphonic Orchastra - Movie themes. I love it. Very relaxing. They don't just do symphony pieces, or just from movies. I've heard songs from Top Gun, Purple Rain, music from Zelda 64, etc. Oh, they also do theme songs from TV shows too:D