Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Specialty Hosting and Markets : VOIP etc : ShoutCast hosting...

[ManobanWeb]

Hi,
Been thinking about SHOUTcast services, do you need a licence for selling the slots or anything like that?
Cheers
Adam

[LH-Danny]

No, you wont need a licence to sell SHOUTcast services - Although the client who is broadcasting will need to purchase a licence to make the stream legal.
If you insert something along the lines of 'We do not provide any kind of licence for shoutcast services' in your TOS, it will let the clients know they have to purchase one elsewhere.

[ManobanWeb]

Thanks for that! I had a feeling I didn't but just wanted to be 100% sure

[Extreme43]

You still must be careful in regards to any unlicensed media files hosted on your system.

[ManobanWeb]

Thanks for the advice,
I will be keeping a close eye on whats on the server.

[JackDavies768]

Also recommend you get some sort of panel, IE Cast Control, CentovaCast or WHMSonic to moniter Bandwidth Usage etc.

[rickb12]

Although the client who is broadcasting will need to purchase a licence to make the stream legal.
Although I think you get the point, this isn't 100% true. You don't need a license to broadcast original programming such as talk programs & your own music. Streamers do however need to obtain a license agreement with an agency such as SoundExchange if you want to broadcast material that's protected by copyright.
If your client(s) don't want to do it on their own, they should consider checking out http://www.loudcity.net/
Rick

[FastServ]

I recommend Loudcity unless you have over 150,000TLH (total listening hours)....direct licensing with soundexchange (and the three others) is much, much more expensive until you hit that point.
Also, keep in mind Loudcity/soundexchange/bmi/ascap/sesac only licenses US based stations.

[Garfieldcat5]

As far as control panels go I would highly recommend CentovaCast. Ours has a special template customized for it plus it integrates with WHMCS for easy automatic setup of the server when payment is sent, not to mention a pretty neat Auto DJ that uses ices.