Users can browse the site for details of how to use music legally on the internet, finding out everything from what licenses they need to how much they cost and where to obtain them. This affects everyone who makes music available for download on their site, for example, in online radio broadcast and webzines that use music clips. Obviously, the amount of music you use and the size of your site determines the cost of a license. Further details are listed on the site.
Also available on the site is the latest news on the UK mechanical-copyright protection society, plus information on how to become a member.
The MCPS is the UK mechanical rights society, and has worked with its "sister" organisation, the PRS (performing right society) to work towards finding some way to make internet music usage work for everyone, ie both the user and the writer/publisher.
In a recent interview with our webzine, Jonathan from industrial band New Mind highlighted the problems with unlicensed music use on the internet:
"We all rely on sales royalties and mechanical royalties and advances for money. There's no possible way to regulate this kind of thing on the internet is there? How would we all make any money ? I mean I'm all for the freedom and anarchy of information, but that doesn't pay for new samplers does it ? If there was a way to make sure that you had to pay for a piece of music over the Net and there was an easy and safe way to regulate this, then it could probably open industrial music up to a much larger audience.."
Both the writers/publishers
and the copyright organisations are hoping that this new system may be
the solution we've been looking for.