Using music on a podcast...

[FlyingRon]

How much does a license cost and what does it cover?

Both ASCAP and BMI start at $368 / year and goes up depending on what your revenue and page hit count. I suspect you're going to be at the minimum for some time.

 

[NIV]

How much does a license cost and what does it cover?

With the payoff of:

The big takeaway from the article is, don't even think about licensing known music. You most likely won't do it correctly and will probably get sued. So just use pre-cleared, royalty-free music. Which is part of the reason the music industry is so f'd right now.

https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Podcasting_Legal_Guide

http://www.broadcastlawblog.com/2015/02/articles/beware-of-music-in-your-podcasts-soundexchange-ascap-bmi-and-sesac-dont-give-you-the-rights-you-need/

 

[quincy]

What is not understood by many is that a recording artist does not get all of the proceeds from the sale of their records. They typically get only a small percentage. The proceeds are shared with music publishers, musicians, song writers, distributors ... just like book authors, artists need quantity of sales to make any appreciable money.

If someone like dc1971 buys a record, the artist he admires so much gets a few cents from the sale. If he then makes his single purchase available for free to anyone who wants it, the recording artist makes no money from additional sales. This is in a very real sense robbing the artist of his paycheck.

That is why the penalties for infringement are so harsh. And deservedly so.