Using Copyrighted Music

Juddge said:
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
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If you take the donations for anything it's not allowed. However - if you put a QR code up for XYZ charity - then YOU are not doing anything, they are doing the collecting of money.

Juddge said:
so do we need to get a bradcast licence if were only transmitting on 0.5mw and the reach distance is only 50m max
and if so who do we apply to the ACMA ?
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Officially yes. Will you get one, unlikely. Is it dodgy do it without one, yes. But if you're not stupid, you keep your power levels down, dont clobber frequencies, dont transmit anything obscene, etc, it's unlikely anything will happen.
 
if we use pulse mesh because it only allows you to view and listen to sites withing a radius of your device ( phone / ipad)
do we need a broadcast licence ? or is the apra licence enough ? i understand needing a acma licence for broadcasing FM but streamiing is diffirent

pulesmesh only allows people to view / listen to sites within a radius of the actual site address listed for the stream

but tune2, is accessable as long as you know the 4 digit code, (XDWA) example, so to me that means its wordwide broadcast not a local broadcast

so pulse mesh would be classified as local broadcast but Tune2 would be pure streaming only ?
 
this is why im leaning towards pulsemesh this year, i used tune 2 last year, as my street you cant really park out the front, so FM even though i have it, is not really an option,
i really prefer people to park up the street and walk down to enjoy the show, so im going to have QR codes for pulse mesh in my yard, and a push button speaker for people who dont have phones, so im assuming as its a private dedicated stream that only works for phones within a limited radius of the site address, that only my apra licence will be needed as its not really a broadcast
 
Juddge said:
do we need a broadcast licence ? or is the apra licence enough ? i understand needing a acma licence for broadcasing FM but streamiing is diffirent
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ACMA is for use of the FM frequency- streaming is not broadcast so you should be OK.

Juddge said:
pulesmesh only allows people to view / listen to sites within a radius of the actual site address listed for the stream
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That's just geofencing for the stream.


APRA would be required for royalties for any 'transmission'.
 
getting the FM licence is easy as sending a email. narrowcasters@apra.com.au
Felicity makes it easy.
my email example from last year

My name is **************,
I would like to apply for a FM Complimentary Narrowcaster licence for 2025.

It's for my annual Christmas computerised display, Where the lights are in sync to Music,
Its played on a speaker (footpath), and over a low powered FM transmitter (people in there cars).
All the equipment is owned by myself.
I don't accept donations
My show will be running from the 20th of Nov till the 1st of Jan

Thats what i used last year. (please change to suit your show)
Thanks..
 
Juddge said:
if we use pulse mesh because it only allows you to view and listen to sites withing a radius of your device ( phone / ipad)
do we need a broadcast licence ? or is the apra licence enough ? i understand needing a acma licence for broadcasing FM but streamiing is diffirent

pulesmesh only allows people to view / listen to sites within a radius of the actual site address listed for the stream

but tune2, is accessable as long as you know the 4 digit code, (XDWA) example, so to me that means its wordwide broadcast not a local broadcast

so pulse mesh would be classified as local broadcast but Tune2 would be pure streaming only ?
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This is why I’ve emailed OneMusic for clarification.

Looking into it a bit, APRA covers the songwriters, artists and composers while OneMusic will cover the Recording Labels (and artists too)

I asked chatGPT to summarise for me and it’s made it clearer than I can:



  • Streaming (via PulseMesh.io)
    ⚠️ This is different:
    • APRA AMCOS covers the compositions.
    • But the streaming of actual recordings usually also requires PPCA/OneMusic permission, since recordings are being transmitted online to the public.
    • This is why PulseMesh says: “If you use music outside the US, you’re responsible for licensing.”
  • So yes — APRA alone cannot cover online streaming. For the streaming part, you may need OneMusic (or in some cases, PPCA directly if OneMusic doesn’t cover your exact use case).
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Hopefully I get a reply in the next few days
 
Quick update re Streaming via PulseMesh

I have a reply from Felicity at APRA, but still waiting on a reply from OneMusic.

Reply from Felicity;

Hi David

The complimentary narrowcaster licence for your Christmas light display covers the broadcast of musical works over a radio frequency only.

If you were to provide a streaming service, it’s likely you would need some kind of online licence in place. From a brief review of their website, it seems they provide the platform (as you mention below), providing the appropriate licences are in place. How long would you be planning to have the display potentially streamed? We have an Online Mini licence that could apply, but it’s an annual licence, starting at $250 + GST. We have another ‘Special Event’ type licence that could include streaming, but this is around $20 per day so would likely be quite cost prohibitive.

Let me know if you’d like to proceed with the streaming option and we can chat further as to what would be the most cost-effective option for you.

Kind Regards

Felicity
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I’ll be chatting more with her and update again soon.

I know the likelihood of anything actually happening without an appropriate licence is minimal, but personally , if it does come down to the $250 option, considering the $ I’ve put into this hobby, it’s just a drop in the ocean 😝

I’d definitely at least try it for this year, see what the public usage is and then revisit for next year.
 
Bit of an update for streaming. (Apologies for spelling/format, I’m on mobile atm)

It’s starting to get a little more complicated unfortunately (why did I go down this rabbit hole!)

As per my last comment, Felicity from APRA confirmed that the narrowcast licence does NOT cover streaming, and passed my details to their Online team for info about the Online Mini Licence. More unfortunately there is no complimentary licence for this.

I’ve just started speaking with Katherine from the Online Mini Licence team today who confirmed a few things;

1. Licence cost starts from $275 (annual).
2. Licence only covers use of the musical compositions, NOT the sound recordings.
3. An additional licence is required from PPCA which covers the sound recordings.
4. No additional licensing required from OneMusic.

I’ve now shot an email off to PPCA seeking further info from them (licence types, is there a complimentary one similar to APRA, cost, etc.). Most likely licence type will be non-interactive streaming service licence from what I can see.

I have also asked Katherine if there is something akin to a ‘group’ licence, but I’m not confident of a positive answer on that front.

I’m starting to think that dependant on total cost of (legally… 😉) streaming, radio and speakers are King.

Anyway I think that’s it for now. I’ll update again for anyone interested once I know more.
 
i already got a reply frpm ppca - $250 for a 1 month streaming licence
conditions
users cannot pick and change the stream songs, - like spotify
users cannot download the songs
users cannot access the information later and play it back
and music licencen is still needed
 
Juddge said:
i already got a reply frpm ppca - $250 for a 1 month streaming licence
conditions
users cannot pick and change the stream songs, - like spotify
users cannot download the songs
users cannot access the information later and play it back
and music licencen is still needed
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Oh awesome! Thank you
So all up ~$525 for the 2 licences required. Hmm, will need to think on this. I’m in a small town and don’t get hundreds of people like some displays do. I don’t mind paying, but I’d want it to get good use if I do.
 
Skymaster said:
This is a very important condition that negates the ability to use remote Falcon, one of the key drivers for mobile interactivity.
Something to keep in mind.
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That’s a very good point.
I read the condition as meaning the app being used (ie PulseMesh) can’t offer interactivity. A user solely using it does not have that ability.

RF used to change what plays on the display, as a side effect that means PulseMesh will play what was chosen but was not directly interacted with to do so.

I’ll have to ask and see what they say unless someone already has.
 
Skymaster said:
This is a very important condition that negates the ability to use remote Falcon, one of the key drivers for mobile interactivity.
Something to keep in mind.
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i think they would mean, they cannot change music to suit themselves, if its a global change for the whole display, falcon remote would be ok, i think they mean you cant just provide music for people to play randomly - seperately like it was just a spotify account
because falcon player is limited to the songs you have selected, and the change would be global for the entire display and all listners and only local at the display, i dont see this as user stream but just a user selection for the entire display
 
It's an interesting legal question and not something we can answer here.
How we (or a forum juddge) might interpret the law, licensing regulations and other bits might be completely different to the way a (legal) judge would interpret them.
It seems that @christmasdave is having all these conversations with the appropriate bodies so that'll be interesting to see what comes out of it

Ultimately the simplest is to offer only local speakers and you're 100% sorted as it's considered private performance.

(The name was too good not to use in the explanation, it's not a targeted reply 🤣)
 
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