Unlike terrestrial radio, you may not need a license to broadcast online.

However, if your station is going to be playing commercial music, as opposed to a talk radio station, you may need to obtain a license to fully protect yourself and ensure you're not infringing on anyone else’s copyright. In most cases, the copyright is normally held by the recording artist or record label.

Internet radio stations cover themselves by paying for what’s known as a “blanket license” or “umbrella license“, it covers their station and allows them to play any type of music. Most licensees like this are paid every year and can vary in price depending on the country you are broadcasting from and the countries you will be broadcasting to.

In some instances, if licenses covering particular countries aren’t in your price range, you can block access from listeners using geo-protection.

Radio.co's geo-protection allows you to easily block or allow listeners from any country. Very handy depending on the license your radio station holds.

Allow countries access to your station, blocking all others from entry which you don’t want tuning in. So if you hold a license for the United States, then allow the country. Radio.co will block all others.

There are a variety of organisations and bodies who look after music copyright and royalties depending on your country, for example here are the UK’s licensing bodies:

Choosing a licensing body solely rests on where you intend to broadcast audio, for instance, if your audience is in the USA then you can use SoundExchange. Here's a list of internet radio licensing bodies by country:

You need to pay for a music license once and then you can use the music for as long as you want and play it however many times as you want without yearly fees.

A royalty free license is usually a lot cheaper than a statutory license because you are not buying tracks for a set amount of time, instead, you are purchasing the rights to use to use tracks forever.

There is an abundance of great services online that represent artists’ royalty free music, here are just a few of the best:

Alternatively, if you’re looking for royalty free jingles or voice overs for your radio station then try Fiverr.