Using Copyrighted Music

I left this pretty late and sent this one at 5:30am this morning. Felicity's already gotten back to me with a license - what a champion!

Here's what I sent, if anyone wants a reference point of what to ask/specify.

Hi team,

I'm planning to put on a Christmas lights show/display at my residential property this year. As part of the show, I'm planning to play music via low powered speakers and transmit on an FM frequency not already in use in my area (I've checked the ACMA broadcasters list for local frequencies already).

A few things of note:

- No payments, fees or donations are being taken or accepted
- The show is personally funded and no commercial entity is involved or advertised
- The show is designed only to be heard (either via speaker or FM) within visual range

I'm hoping to have the license organised from the 27th of November to the 31st of December, to cover some testing early next week before we run the show on Friday the 1st of December. We're expecting to run the show every Friday/Saturday night, but this might vary during the period depending on scheduling, issues etc.

My details are below:

Name: <INSERT>
Address: <INSERT>
Contact <INSERT>

Please let me know if any further information is required.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
Too early to prompt? Thought I would add a post to bump as a reminder for 2025 :)

After taking last year off I almost forgot about this amongst getting everything else ready! Just sent my email for this year.
 
Just remember that this just covers you for not having to play royalties for playing music over a broadcast. It still does not cover you for use of the transmitter over 10 microwatts.
 
All radio frequency broadcasting in Australia (and likely globally) is regulated. Spectrum allocation is a very finite resource, and companies (radio stations) pay very good money for their broadcast licences.
Some bands are allowed for public use, up to a certain limit. eg: CB Radio on AM (27MHz) and UHF (477 MHz) are allowed for 5 watts, of memory.
Others, like 2.4GHz for Bluetooth & Wifi, 433MHz for low-power communications like garage door openers and 5.8GHz for Wifi, up to different limits (eg 500mW or 1W for wifi depending on channel).

On the FM frequency band - 87.5MHz to 107.9MHz, ACMA (Australian Communications & Media Authority) allow for very small scale transmitters (up to 10uW) unlicensed. This allows for those Cigarette-Lighter plugin transmitters for your iPod to send to the car radio - a distance of about 3-4 feet. Anything higher than this officially requires a frequency license.

Licence to broadcast at special events | ACMA

To broadcast at a major sports or arts event, organisers need an open narrowcast licence. Apply 8 weeks before your event for a licence of up to 30 days.
www.acma.gov.au www.acma.gov.au

If I look at the second link, and your licence application was successful:
Sydney: High Density
Power 0.1W
Bandwidth: 200kHz

25.7878 per khz for high density
Max power - Low - 150W (fine) - power factor = 0.1

200 * 25.7878 * 0.1 = $516
 
JohnsRdChristmas said:
@Skymaster what is a narrowcasting license then? Thought it covered us for a small range??
Click to expand...
There are two parts to it:

1. ACMA (Australian Communications & Media Authority) - Usage of the radio frequency for broadcast purposes
2. APRA (Australasian Performing Right Association) - Deals with the royalties of using commercial music.

The Narrowcast licence mentioned above is for point (2) - It is basically a freebie that APRA are saying - yes, you can use the music without having to pay royalties. They would ordinarily collect those royalties and pass them onto the artists/creators/etc
 
im sure the donations refers to donating to the people who are doing the display (ie you, people cant dontate to you to saay thankyou ), taking donations for other charities would be exempt, thats how i would understand that
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top