So you want to use copyright music in your podcast?
Copyright music in your podcast?
A few years back I was asked to cost a price for producing a podcast for Jazz FM with Robbie Vincent. I was Robbie’s producer at the time and we wanted to create a Sunday Morning Soul Podcast with some seasonal specials. I was convinced we could do it. I was wrong.
No matter how much we tried to get around it we couldn’t get a PPL licence to create the content, even with Jazz FM’s influence. We were asked to contact each record label individually.

Until you start to explore what that means you really have no idea! The idea was simply cost prohibitive. Each label had a different price and the time it would take to get around to them all, check the agreements, it just wasn’t worth it.
A few years later and while producing the Radio Skills for Podcasters Podcast I was bemused to see that the situation just hadn’t changed.
I’m convinced that every podcaster would like to use music at some point in their podcast, never mind a curated music programme Robbie wanted to create.
Whilst the majority of podcasts are speech based, music can help create atmosphere, provides moments of impact and helps augment segments of your podcast.
Well then, how can you include podcast music in your podcast?
There is an answer and I’ll go into that in a moment – first though, a reminder of copyright law.
Copyright law (in the UK)

Copyright protects original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works (and other intellectual property).
It allows an original work to be considered a property that is owned by somebody. The framework for Copyright Law in the UK is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (‘the Act’). Other territories also have their won copyright laws.
Copyright lasts for 70 years after the end of the calendar year when the author dies.
As a podcaster it is your responsibility to ensure you have the correct licences in place before using any copyright material, and if you use copyright music without permission the owner can use the UK Limitation act to ask you to pay for up to 6 years fees of using their work.
Copyright infringements are usually a civil case, although some have resulted with a defendant going to prison. In those cases they usually they surround the theft of people’s work.
A civil case is where the judge can impose damages or injunctions, where the law helps regulate the relationship between individuals.
The Licences you need

Right with the legal blurb out of the way here’s how licenses, collections and fees work in the UK.
There are two collection agencies in the UK collecting fees on behalf of their members, they are:
PRS (Performance Rights Society): They collect and distribute money on behalf of songwriters, composers and music publishers for the use of their musical compositions and lyrics (the ‘publishing right’).
PPL (Phonographic Performance Licence): They collect and distribute money on behalf of its performers and record company members for the use of their recorded music (the ‘recording right’).
PRS for Music offer a Limited Online Licence for Podcasters. You can see more about this licence here.
Whilst the PRS licence covers you for the ‘performance rights’ it does not cover you for the ‘recording rights’. PPL collect the recorded music performance fees, wait though – they do not do this for podcasts.
The record companies have decided to collect Podcast music use fees themselves.
So what does that mean?
PRS will cover you for the ‘publishing rights’, but you’ll need to contact the owning record company to cover the ‘recording rights’ and gain permission for each track used in your podcast.
Lucy Cousins at PPL informed me that both organisations, PPL and PRS, actively explore opportunities to work more closely at an operational level. They already operate a number of joint licence solutions, but there are not any current plans for a joint podcasting licence, this may of course change in future.
I do think that as the Podcast industry grows in the UK, we need an association or organisational body to represent us with the likes of PPL and PRS. The radio industry has this in abundance at each level of the industry from student and hospital radio associations to the Radio Centre and Radio Academy.
The issue for record companies is historical and understandable. It dates back to the early days of podcast. Hey think about it if you’re business relies on punters buying your product but someone else is using it in their download and providing it for free you’d be nervous too. It’s the easy way to break your business model.
Maybe the record industry needs to update its model and embrace podcast? Clearly there needs to be a license fee, but one that makes sense for both parties in the transaction – and easy to access.
Perhaps there will be an impasse at some point, especially if enough podcasters are interested in including music. As Lucy Cousins of PPL points out, that solution is not available right now, that’s not saying it won’t change.
You can hear Kevin’s podcast about using copyright music in your podcast by clicking >>> – Series One Episode 7 How to use copyright music in your podcast.