Question on streaming ingame music (clearance rights etc)

[mikep]

hi all,

imagine a game where the user can choose/enter an URL (shoutcast stream) to be played as background music.
Note: this stream IS NOT produced/hosted by the developers of the game.

Does this have any legal consequences for the developer? ( like music clearance rights etc)

In this particular case the developers also acts as publisher ( typical indie-electronic-distribution-scenario)

thx for your answers & have a good new year.
mike/Bongfish Interactive Entertainment

[mikep]

thx for the fast answer, hosting a file with popular radio stations maybe the problem then.. well..gonna look for a solution to that then

have a good new year!

[Sega]

Sounds like Xbox with the user tracks. Good idea. Out of curiosity, is this a way to get out of hiring someone to do music? I personally wouldn't like a game that required me to be connected to the internet just to have background music. Hell, I wouldn't like a game that didn't have any original music either, but I may be a special case there.

Anyway, as long as this is an option and not a requirement, this sounds pretty cool! I don't believe I've seen it done before. As far as the legality of including links goes, if you even do need permission, I'm sure there are streaming stations that would be happy to gain more listeners this way. If you can pitch it to them as a win/win situation, I'm sure you wouldn't have too many problems getting permission to link.

[mikep]

the idea is not to avoid having someone doing music, its quite the opposite indeed. We could have some quite awesome soundtracks from bands & DJ's who would be quite happy with the compensation we can offer them... but then there are still those companies responsible for collecting music clearance rights individually for each country.
So imagine those mentioned artists (and even their music labels) willing toabandon their clearance-rights for the songs given to the game, still those clearance-companies can turn to us (the developers) and collect their fees.
those fees are mostly calculated on a scheme originating in listener-quantities from concert-halls etc, there's no way we can afford those for an internet-distributed-release, letting alone negotiating this for each country in terms of an international release.
this situation is clearly not in favor for the independent developer and this is where the idea of offering already existing shoutcast streams comes in.

[AnthemAudio]

The legal ramifications are...

You will need two licenses...as any streaming service has to have (which is essentially what your app will become). You need a general blanket license which covers the actual performance of the work in a public place and a Statutory license. The Statutory license covers the actual transmission of the music in a digital format.

You can get these at soundexchange.com. I believe that's the only way to give the band's royalties, in which case it would be easier to get their blessing.

If you are just attaching to a service like Shoutcast then you will probably pay a percentage for their existing licenses.

Now, if you go and find an up and coming band who wants to do some promoting you can probably get it done a lot cheaper. That's an idea, indie games...indie music.

Hmm...