Before we start, all advice on this page is general in its nature. As an owner or manager of a venue, you should seek your own independent advice on music licensing. We take no responsibility for any other party breaching their licensing obligations.

There are a couple of aspects to music licensing that you should be aware of. Both aspects ensure that the people who make the music are acknowledged and financially rewarded for their incredible skills.

We absolutely and unreservedly support the rights of those artists, songwriters, audio engineers, producers and everyone else involved to receive payment for the work they do.

We hope that you agree and support our stance on this critically important part of what we do.

As an online radio station, we have a requirement to be licensed by two different organisations:

• Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA)
• Australasian Performing Right Association Limited and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (APRA AMCOS)

Each of these organisations collect licence fees from radio stations, podcast producers, etc (including us) and distribute them to the members of their respective organisations.

It's pretty simple - if we don't have the appropriate licence for what we are doing, we are breaching copyright and ripping these amazing artists and technicians off.

At mylocal.radio, we are proud to say that we are fully covered by the required licences. This gives us the rights to broadcast our station within Australia, using our web site, dedicated mobile apps and other channels as listed on our How To Listen page.

Anyone can listen to mylocal.radio for their business premises or for their own personal enjoyment at no cost. Personal use is fine but, if you are playing our station (or any other music) in a business or commercial environment, you should read the next two sections.

If you are running any business or commercial venture and you use music in that environment, you are also required to have a licence.

This licence is issued by OneMusic Australia and gives you the rights to play music in your venue or workplace, regardless of whether the music is for background or for entertainment. This includes pubs, clubs, cafes and other hospitality venues but also ... and this might surprise you ... it also means retail shops, medical centres, offices and range of other environments.

But don't take our word for it - visit the OneMusic web site.

We'll do our bit by ensuring that we are licensed to broadcast the music on mylocal.radio and we really hope you do yours.

By the way ... it doesn't matter whether you are playing our station, another station, your own CDs and digital downloads, streaming services (yes, including that one ... see below) or any other form of recorded or broadcast music, you need a licence to play music in your business or commercial premises.

And just in passing, if you are using Spotify, Apple Music or any other of those paid music streams, please check the terms and conditions of your service. 

Many, many businesses use a personal Spotify or Apple Music account without realising that in close to 100% of cases, they are breaching the terms and conditions associated with the individual account. The key here is the word "personal" - if you are using a personal account in a business environment, you are doing the wrong thing.

As we see it, you have a few options:

1. Use your personal streaming service. Apart from the fact that you are paying around $20 per month, you are breaching the terms and conditions which may lead to legal action from the streaming service.
   
   
2. Use a commercial licence from one of these streaming service. Nothing wrong with that from a legal perspective but you are paying way more than $20 per month.
   
   
3. Use mylocal.radio in your business. Totally legal and free (except for the OneMusic licence you should have regardless of which option you choose).

You are probably asking yourself - how do they do it for free?

We are a small business based in Geelong in Victoria without the overheads that come from employing 1000s of people in major cities across the world. We offer opportunities for businesses to support us in return for acknowledgement on the radio which provides us with the funds we need to cover our costs.

Sure, we don't offer the flexibility that the big guys offer. Sure, you can't pick and choose the music that we play like you can with the major streaming services.

But, we do offer a really good, free service for any business or individual who wants to listen.