Streaming Rates: There’s No Free Lunch
There are different rates for commercial webcasters, broadcast simulcasters (an AM or FM for instance), small commercial webcasters/simulcasters, non-commercial webcasters/simulcasters and even non-commercial educational entities. Rates vary but nobody gets a free ride. You can see the various rates here.
When you stream a radio station through Live365.com (Buy Direct), one of the real nice aspects of using that service is your monthly fee also includes the royalties you owe for whatever music you play. Boy, does that take the hassle and worry out of things!
Podcasting Rates: What Rates?
When it comes to Podcasting, as of this writing, things are a bit gray. According to Collegebroadcasters.org:
By contrast to webcasting, a podcast may include a reproduction of a sound recording. Podcasting is an interactive activity. It results in the transmission of a sound recording which is fixed and is accessible on demand by the user. The reproduction requires clearances or licenses - for the sound recording, and for the musical work. Although the performance rights societies offer licenses to cover the musical works in a podcast, no uniform or industry-wide licensing scheme has developed yet to cover the sound recording.
So, technically somebody is owed something for music or other copyrighted aural works offered within Podcasts but this arena is not yet being policed as stringently as webcasting is. I think the music companies are trying to figure out how exactly to do that.
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