Himanshu PatelThe late 90s was the time when we had the facility of listening to music or watching videos online but we never had the best experience of our lives. The stuff used to be pixelated and more than a video, what we saw was the word ‘buffering’.
It was not always a weak internet connection, but or computers were also the reason for such slow streaming. This is because the processors of the computer system were so slow that they were obstructing the speed of online streaming. Now, with the improvement in technology, things are more defined, clear and also easy.
We can listen to what we want, watch the desired video with the best quality and without any hindrance. In this narrative, we will tell you the process of how all this happens. Go and increase the content of your knowledge bank.
Some Varieties Of Streaming Services Available To Us
The two broad categories of streaming services come under radio stations and on-demand music. In this narrative, we will mostly be dealing with on-demand streaming. On-demand streaming is like a playlist which is created by some user.
This is the playlist that can be shared with other people as well. Through this, people can choose the song and can listen to them. This service can also be called as some type of on-demand entertainment.
On-Demand Streaming Services Available At Contemporary Times
The most popular and best example of On-demand streaming services is Apple music. Using which, users can select the song of their choice and can play it and enjoy it on an instant basis. There are many other similar platforms that provide this service. All these are examples of on-demand music streaming service.
Different platforms are competing with each other in this realm. For example, one such platform gives the user to create their own music playlist while the other gives freedom to share the playlist with their friends.
Going further, some of such platforms also give the user access to sing and upload their own songs. Some of these platforms also give facility to the users to simultaneously listen to the radio stations of their choice.
What Are The Licensing Agreements Involved In This On-Demand Music Platforms
The two things that top the requirements for licensing are sound recordings and songs. All of that we hear on television, radio and even on the music apps have copyrights. Only platforms that hold those rights have the legal permission to play these songs on their apps or live streaming devices to be distributed among the listeners.
For example, we have seen many singers holding some labels, wearing a badge of some sound recording company. All these just tell that this song belongs to that particular label and that particular label has the freedom to play or distribute that song.
This is not all. Even the lyrics of the songs belong to the person who has written the song. These people are popularly known as the songwriters. Until and unless songwriters do not sell their songs to any publisher with all the legal formalities, the song belongs to only them. A manager helps in this process.
Read More : On-Demand Music Streaming Services Work?
The publisher can play the song on some radio station, collect money made by the streaming of that song, etc. All these need a legal bond and permission from a songwriter before the song is being distributed anywhere.
Whatever we hear on the internet or download from the internet (here we are talking about songs) is done only after the copyrights for that song is done to that service provider on the internet. The money that the provider gives to the songwriter or creator in exchange for distributing that song is known as ROYALTIES.
Which are The Organizations With Whom On-Demand Music Streaming Should Have License To Develop The Live Streaming Music App And Post Content?
The popular music labels like Warner Bros and Sony Music should be involved here. This helps to distribute the content to a larger audience and such recognized music labels do all the legal formalities properly.
There are some of the platforms which require direct licensing deals. Few names are just mentioned below:
– Merlin Network
– Universal Music etc.
These needs direct licensing and the form of the content could be a percentage of the revenue that the song is making, per-stream rate, upfront payment or equity.
Things To Know
We do not even realize what all happens when we download or live stream and listen to any song from the internet. But this is actually a successfully run lucrative business. Record labels and publishers are making a lot of money by selling or giving their song content to platforms.
What labels are presently doing is that they are signing deals with the platforms that are streaming the audio or music content. These deals they are making with the streaming platforms who have a massive client base as the more people it will reach, the more revenue and royalties labels will collect.
But even after that, there are rules that are brewing for streaming platforms. There is no proper rule for licensing the musical content and it actually depends on the country to country rule.
Each country has a specific set of rules for this and some of such rule is not considered valid by the other country. This creates a hell lot of problems for the content which are globally popular and are shared on a global platform.
The copyrights and licensing become so difficult that sometimes these songs do not reach some countries. This does not give recognition to the content and also deprives people of consuming the desired content.
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