Could Use Help on MP3/Video Streaming

Posted on April 16, 2009 by Bruce Keener

Update (18 April 2009): I think the flash player that is now in use on my music page resolves the potential licensing issues, by preventing downloads of my guitar playing of tunes that have been written by others. My own compositions (and a few selected traditional gospel tunes that should not require licensing) are available for download. I’m not very happy with the appearance of the flash player, though, and sure would welcome suggestions for where I can find a more attractive one.

Regular readers of this site are probably aware that I sometimes record tunes on my guitars and upload them for your listening. Those tunes are all located on my music page.

While I’ve had the best of intentions in doing this, it turns out that I may be in violation of some licensing laws. Specifically, by posting links to the mp3 recordings as I have done, they can be downloaded. That’s fine for the tunes that I have written. But, for the ones that are recordings of tunes written by others, I found out that I should be paying a licensing fee before allowing downloads of my recording of those tunes. In hindsight I understand this. It never occurred to me before because I figured “I’m the one doing the recordings, they are available for free, so there shouldn’t be any concern with licensing.”

So, I am having to go about resolving this. One thing that is certainly needed is for me to make the recordings available only via streaming, not via download links. Since some of you are experienced bloggers and/or web designers, I would sure love to hear from you on your recommendations for WordPress plugin software that will let me do this. I’ve done some preliminary searching and it looks to me like there is a lot of junk available, and it is hard to find something that I can have immediate confidence in.

I do not know if transitioning to streaming audio will completely address the licensing issue. Since there really aren’t very many people who visit my music page, I don’t think any artists are going to scream at me and come after me on this – they sure aren’t losing any money on my account. But, I also want to do what is right. So, I will continue looking into this and into the costs of digital licensing.

Again, to help me through the interim period, on my way to a final solution, I would appreciate help from any of you who are familiar with good streaming plugins.

Thank you.

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  • John

    Bruce,

    Hmm…. is it how the current legal framework works?

    Say, if I record and post a youtube video of myself playing a song, I don’t have to worry about loyalty because viewers can only stream it, not download? As far as I understand, if I perform the same song live, say, in a pub, either the pub or myself has to pay loyalty. There is no recording. This is equivalent to streaming. So, I don’t understand why we don’t have to pay loyalty in the youtube or streaming case… Any insight?

  • http://www.keenerliving.com/ Bruce Keener

    John,

    I’m not as clear on the streaming part as I need to be. Some say streaming is okay, so long as downloads are not allowed. Some say streaming requires licensing, too, in which case even the YouTube vids should be licensed (although everybody and his brother has recorded something on YouTube without paying licensing fees).

    I’ve yet to read the legal material myself, as I have spent all day trying to find an audio player that will allow playing of the tunes without allowing downloads. The YaHoo player I am using at the time of this writing almost does that, but a techie person could still figure out how to do a download of the material (not that my stuff is worth downloading anyway, but that’s another issue). I found another plugin that seems like it would prevent downloads (except from super geeks), but it will require me to rewrite all of my links to my music. And, it’s ugly as homemade sin.

    Anyway, like I said, I’m still fooling with handling the interim technical details, and haven’t personally dived into the wording of the related legal stuff. So, I should not speculate. Like I mentioned, I’ve heard both ways on the streaming.

  • http://www.keenerliving.com/ Bruce Keener

    John (and interested others),
    This evening I have begun looking at some of the legal documents and opinions on this matter. Regarding the streaming versus download issue, I came across the following article, which suggests that there is not settled law on this matter:

    http://www.gsblaw.com/practice/notableevents.asp?StoryID=13491212282008&groupID=21

    I also know, though, that there was a meeting of judges on this issue in January of this year (a couple of months after the above article was written) and I have attempted to understand their conclusions, but it is just over my head at this point. Further work is required on my part to get a good understanding on this. Regardless, I thought the article on streaming vs downloads would be of interest.