[grc] Reporting requirements for streaming stations

Tue Oct 13 15:14:34 PDT 2015

This is from the horse's mouth:

"If you are a noncommercial entity with low annual listenership, accruing
fewer than 44,000 aggregate tuning hours annually, which is approximately 12
listeners each listening for 10 hours per day then you would be able to
apply for the NC-MICRO category that I mentioned in our previous
conversation. The NC-MICRO category has the option to submit that extra
$100.00 reporting waiver as long as you fit within the requirements. 

Please review the information I previously sent. 

Thanks!

Best, 

Henry

Henry French | License Management Specialist, Licensee Relations |
SoundExchange, Inc. | 

733 10th Street, NW | 10th Floor | Washington, DC  20001 | 

P: 202.696.1825 | F: 202.640.5883 | hfrench at soundexchange.com

AND THIS

The Noncommercial Microcaster category is intended for low annual
listenership, accruing fewer than 44,000 aggregate tuning hours annually,
which is approximately 12 listeners each listening for 10 hours per day.
Full rates and terms are described in 74 Fed. Reg. 40614, 40624 Appendix D
(Aug. 12, 2009). The Noncommercial Microcaster owes a $500 fee with the
option of submitting a $100 reporting waiver. Through this, the
Noncommercial Microcaster category is able to waive the requirements to
submit monthly reports of use. The Noncommercial Microcaster is really
intended for even smaller webcasters who are at "hobbyist" level service.
Noncommercial Microcasters must not exceed 44,000 aggregate tuning hours
("ATH") in annual listenership during the previous calendar year, and must
reasonably expect to not exceed that same threshold within the applicable
calendar year.

The NC-MICRO category has to deliver the minimum fee SOA within 30 days
after they begin streaming. In addition, upon election, Microcasters are
required to operate within the category for all eligible statutory licensing
activity through the end of the applicable year. 

2015 Noncommercial Microcaster Minimum Fee SOA:
http://www.soundexchange.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/2015-NCMICRO-Minimum
-11-12-14.pdf 

The first step, however, is to make sure that you have submitted the Notice
of Use (plus $40, if filing new) to the Copyright Royalty Board (this is not
annual; only required once) - available on our website. All services
operating under statutory licensing must file a Notice of Use form with the
Copyright Royalty Board before beginning operation. If you have not already
done so, please send a check or money order along with the form to the
Copyright Royalty Board directly. 

Copyright Royalty Board

P.O. Box 70977

Washington DC, 20024-0977

Third party vendors do exist that can help you with your reporting
obligations. Please note that SoundExchange does not endorse any particular
aggregator or service. Should any third party vendor fail to meet its
obligation son your service's behalf - your service remain ultimately
responsible for its compliance with the terms of the statutory license.

This is not a comprehensive list of such vendor, nor have we assessed the
effectiveness of any vendors' products or services. We cannot
authoritatively state that any of the following vendors' products or
services will suit your nees, but we understand that the following vendors
offer services to webcasters, including reporting solutions: 

.     Abacast - Provides platform and reporting

.     Triton Digital - Provides platform and reporting

.     Backbone - Caters to non-profits, allow portable radio stations

.     MusicMaster - Music-scheduling technology and provides reporting

.     PowerGold - Music-scheduling technology and provides reporting

.     Radioactivity - Provides platform and reporting

.     Spacial Audio - Music-scheduling technology and provides reporting

.     Spinitron - Caters to non-profits, provides reporting

.     Surfer Network - Caters to mid and small markets, provides platform
and reporting

.     First Streaming - Provides platform and reporting

Here is a little step-by-step reference guide:

1.       Submit the Notice of Use to the Copyright Royalty Board.

2.       Submit the Minimum Fee SOA (signed, with payment) within given time
frame - address listed in form.

For more information about SoundExchange, please visit:
http://www.soundexchange.com/about/general-faq/ 

If you have any questions about the above rates and terms, feel free to
contact me again at the number below. I hope everything works out!

Best Regards,

Henry

Henry French | License Management Specialist, Licensee Relations |
SoundExchange, Inc. | 

733 10th Street, NW | 10th Floor | Washington, DC  20001 | 

P: 202.696.1825 | F: 202.640.5883 | hfrench at soundexchange.com

-----Original Message-----
From: grc-bounces at maillist.peak.org [mailto:grc-bounces at maillist.peak.org]
On Behalf Of Will Floyd
Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2015 2:57 PM
To: Leo Babeu
Cc: grc list
Subject: Re: [grc] Reporting requirements for streaming stations

I agree Leo.

For SoundExchange, I recommend paying the extra $100 to them to avoid the
reporting requirement. SoundExchange requires a very specific format for
their reporting which takes a great deal of time to achieve unless you run
everything on automation and have detailed and clean meta data associated
with your audio files. If you have many volunteer DJs it can become
cumbersome to collect and format song data. Even good play logging software
won't necessarily save you.

BMI says they only require artist, title and play count, and they don't
specify format so that may be a little easier. When I talked to a BMI rep
about the reporting requirements for web licensing they seemed at least
somewhat flexible. I would recommend pushing them to see what they will do
to accommodate you.

"BMI does not waive reporting requirements for smaller webcasters. Music
Usage Reporting is how BMI is able to appropriately pay royalties to our
affiliates based on their actual plays. Without music usage reports we
cannot correctly allocate your licensing fees. If you have no way whatsoever
to report, please follow up with me and we can work out a solution for your
service. We only require artist, title, and number of plays for our music
usage reporting, so not too many metrics."

On Tue, Oct 13, 2015 at 5:22 PM, Leo Babeu < <mailto:lepat at lakenet.com>
lepat at lakenet.com> wrote:

> Otis: I'd love to get on board your program, but folks need to 

> comprehend that without  paid staff and a good metadata logging 

> system, you can't easily provide either real time playlists to 

> listeners or report metadata to PRO's 24/7, without an enormous burden 

> on our micro station's already overworked and stressed staff. I dig 

> paying artists, and I'm starting to think that if BMI's dictatorial 

> oversight  is the best way of getting them paid, we all have a serious 

> problem. In our micro-station world, we appear to have few options. 

> Remember this is our stream use BMI's overreaching on, where we often have
0,1,2,on a big day- 6, concurrent listeners.

> Leo

> KTWH-LP

> On 10/13/2015 10:06 AM, Otis Maclay wrote:

> 

>> just a point:

>> 

>> music listeners want playlists. if you do playlists (like using the

>> confessor) you can report anyway.

>> and a point about reporting: artists actually get a check. when you 

>> report, your giving the artists money. different from PRO's which 

>> give the writer money, not the performer (unless the performer is the
writer).

>> 

>> reporting: gives money to deserving individual and provides playlist 

>> for listener.

>> 

>> O.

>> 

>> --------------------------

>> Why not give veterans a monthly stipend when they walk in the door,..

>> THEN figure out how much they're supposed to get?

>> 

>> On Tue, Oct 13, 2015 at 9:16 AM, Donna Dibianco < 

>>  <mailto:communityradiogoddess at yahoo.com> communityradiogoddess at yahoo.com

>> < <mailto:communityradiogoddess at yahoo.com>
mailto:communityradiogoddess at yahoo.com>>

>> wrote:

>> 

>>     Hi Leo,      Usually ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and Sound Exchange take a

>>     "snapshot" of your broadcast year. They will send a notice asking

>>     your to report for a week's worth of broadcast. It's not as

>>     ominous as most think, especially if you are using an automation

>>     system that logs the details like Artist Name, Song title, Album

>>     and Record label.

>>      Donna DiBiancoStation Start-up Specialist

>>     503-960-1068 < <tel:503-960-1068> tel:503-960-1068>

>>      <http://grc2015.net/> http://grc2015.net/

>> 

>>      <http://www.linkedin.com/pub/donna-dibianco>
www.linkedin.com/pub/donna-dibianco

>>     < <http://www.linkedin.com/pub/donna-dibianco>
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/donna-dibianco>

>>      <http://www.facebook.com/communityradiogoddess>
www.facebook.com/communityradiogoddess

>>     < <http://www.facebook.com/communityradiogoddess>
http://www.facebook.com/communityradiogoddess>

>> 

>> 

>> 

>>          On Monday, October 12, 2015 10:22 PM, Leo Babeu

>>     < <mailto:lepat at lakenet.com%20%3cmailto:lepat at lakenet.com>
lepat at lakenet.com <mailto:lepat at lakenet.com>> wrote:

>> 

>> 

>>      We at KTWH-LP would like to know if other LPFM's and very small

>>     noncommercial webcasting radio stations have avoided the

>>     requirement to

>>     report music used to Sound Exchange by paying the $100 waiver of

>>     reporting, only to have BMI's digital licensing arm insist on

>>     reports of

>>     music use for every minute of the broadcast year? If there is a
method

>>     to avoid this onerous reporting requirement (they are demanding

>>     it, and

>>     are insisting we sign an 11 page agreement that doesn't look quite

>>     right

>>     for a streaming LPFM), we at Two Harbors Community Radio (THCR) would

>>     love to hear how it's done.

>>     Thanks,

>>     Leo Babeu

>>     THCR

>>     KTWH-LP

>> 

>>     ---

>>     This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.

>>      <https://www.avast.com/antivirus> https://www.avast.com/antivirus

>> 

>>     _______________________________________________

>>     grc mailing list

>>      <mailto:grc at maillist.peak.org> grc at maillist.peak.org <
<mailto:grc at maillist.peak.org> mailto:grc at maillist.peak.org>

>>      <http://maillist.peak.org/mailman/listinfo/grc>
http://maillist.peak.org/mailman/listinfo/grc

>> 

>> 

>> 

>>     _______________________________________________

>>     grc mailing list

>>      <mailto:grc at maillist.peak.org> grc at maillist.peak.org <
<mailto:grc at maillist.peak.org> mailto:grc at maillist.peak.org>

>>      <http://maillist.peak.org/mailman/listinfo/grc>
http://maillist.peak.org/mailman/listinfo/grc

>> 

>> 

>> 

> 

> 

> ---

> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.

>  <https://www.avast.com/antivirus> https://www.avast.com/antivirus

> _______________________________________________

> grc mailing list

>  <mailto:grc at maillist.peak.org> grc at maillist.peak.org

>  <http://maillist.peak.org/mailman/listinfo/grc>
http://maillist.peak.org/mailman/listinfo/grc

> 

--

Will Floyd

Technical Director | Prometheus Radio Project
<mailto:will at prometheusradio.org> will at prometheusradio.org | 215.727.9620
x524 _______________________________________________

grc mailing list

 <mailto:grc at maillist.peak.org> grc at maillist.peak.org

 <http://maillist.peak.org/mailman/listinfo/grc>
http://maillist.peak.org/mailman/listinfo/grc