What Licenses Do You Need for an Online Radio Station? (2026)

If you stream recorded music to an audience from the United States, you need two music licences: a public performance licence from the performing rights organisations covering your repertoire (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR), and a digital performance licence from SoundExchange for the sound recordings themselves. You do not need an FCC broadcast licence unless you also transmit over AM, FM or low-power FM airwaves.

That is the whole legal core of it. Everything else people lump in with licensing — forming an LLC, registering a call sign, buying a domain — is either ordinary business setup or a broadcast question you only answer if you go on air.

This is general information about how US music licensing works, not legal advice. Fee schedules change with rate proceedings, and the details shift with your format, your state and how you distribute audio. Read it as a map, then check the current terms with the licensing bodies themselves before you sign anything.

Table of Contents

• What licenses do you need for an online radio station?
• Do you need an FCC license to stream online?
• Internet Radio: Which FCC rules still apply?
  • Public inspection file and record-keeping
  • Sponsorship announcements
  • Accessibility requirements
  • Employment and engineering rules
• What music licenses does an online radio station need?
  • Why SoundExchange matters more online than on FM
  • Blanket, per-programme or direct
  • How SoundExchange reporting works in practice
• Can you use songs you bought, found, or created yourself?
• What other licenses or registrations should a US station consider?
• What does it cost to license an online radio station?
• A simple licensing checklist before you go live
• Frequently Asked Questions
  • Can I start a radio station without a broadcast license?
  • Do I need a music license if my stream is completely free and non-commercial?
  • Can I play music from Spotify or YouTube on my own radio stream?
  • Is public domain music free to broadcast?
  • Do I need a registered business name to run an online station?
  • What happens if I stream music without a license?
• Conclusion

What licenses do you need for an online radio station?

Every song you stream carries two separate copyrights. The musical composition — words and melody, owned by songwriters and their publishers — is licensed through performing rights organisations, usually called PROs. The sound recording, the specific recorded take owned by a label or artist, is licensed separately.

So the layers stack up like this, roughly in the order you will meet them:

1. Public performance licence for compositions. A blanket licence from each PRO that represents writers whose material you play. In the US that means ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and Global Music Rights.
2. Digital performance licence for sound recordings. Registration and play reporting with SoundExchange, which collects the statutory internet radio royalty for recording owners and performers.
3. A streaming host’s included licence, if you use one. Some hosts bundle a music licence with the plan. Read what it covers, because most bundles do not cover SoundExchange and often do not cover audio you upload yourself.
4. Business and state registrations. Entity formation, a tax ID, an assumed business name if your station name differs from your legal name, and sales-tax or resale permits if you take advertising.
5. An FCC broadcast licence, only if you transmit. This applies to AM, FM, full-power and low-power stations, not to internet-only streams.

The table below shows who to approach and what each one actually licenses.

Licensing body	What it licenses	Fee basis	Where to apply
ASCAP	Musical compositions in its repertoire	Percentage of adjusted gross revenue, with reduced tiers for qualifying non-commercial and educational stations	ascap.com/licensing
BMI	Musical compositions in its repertoire	Percentage of adjusted gross revenue, with non-commercial and educational rates	bmi.com/licensing
SESAC	Musical compositions in its repertoire	Revenue-based with non-commercial tiers	sesac.com/licensing
Global Music Rights	Musical compositions in its repertoire	Revenue-based with non-commercial options	globalmusicrights.com/licensing
SoundExchange	The sound recording and the artists on it, for digital audio transmission	Statutory royalty on advertising revenue; no fee to register	soundexchange.com
The Copyright Royalty Board	Sets the statutory rates the SoundExchange royalty is calculated against	Sets rates, does not license	copyrightroyaltyboard.gov

Do you need an FCC license to stream online?

Only if you broadcast. The FCC licenses stations that transmit over the air: AM, FM, full-power, translator, and low-power FM. Streaming audio over the internet is not a broadcast service in the FCC’s sense, so an internet-only station does not apply to the FCC for a broadcast licence, and it does not get a call sign from them.

Two situations do pull the FCC back in. The first is obvious: you want to transmit from a transmitter and cover a physical area, which needs an FCC construction permit and licence. The second catches people out — you hold an AM, FM or LPFM licence and you add the stream. Now the internet station is a simulcast, and your FCC obligations travel with it.

Low-power FM deserves its own note because community and campus stations ask about it constantly. LPFM is a real FCC licence, available to non-commercial educational organisations at no charge, with a power ceiling and a local service contour. Several radio hobby communities use it as an FM companion to an online stream. If your goal is purely an internet audience, it is unnecessary expense and paperwork.

A useful test: if you can point an FM radio at your signal, the FCC is involved. If the audio only travels through an internet connection, it is not.

Internet Radio: Which FCC rules still apply?

An internet-only stream built by someone with no broadcast licence sits largely outside FCC jurisdiction. The rules that bite hardest are the ones a licensee inherits the moment they hold one.

Public inspection file and record-keeping

Broadcast licensees keep a public inspection file with their FCC licence, ownership disclosures and political advertising records. Streamers who hold such a licence should expect their online programming and sponsorship records to be part of that obligation.

Sponsorship announcements

Broadcast stations must identify sponsors within a reasonable time after the sponsored material begins, and they cannot editorialize on paid content. An internet-only station is not bound by that Part 73 rule, but doing the same thing voluntarily is cheap insurance. Advertisers will ask what your disclosure practices are, and the stream is now the main thing listeners hear.

Accessibility requirements

Broadcast licensees have accessibility obligations that extend to their live online streams, including quality standards for captions on programming with captions. If you are LPFM, a non-commercial educational licensee, you also take on educational and instructional programming duties that shape your schedule.

Employment and engineering rules

Part 73 also covers equal employment opportunity and opportunity obligations, technical standards and engineering records. None of this applies to a streamer with no RF component, which is one of the practical reasons LPFM licences get turned down by operators who only wanted a stream.

The pattern to remember: FCC rules attach to the transmitter, and they follow the broadcaster across every platform that carries the same programming.

What music licenses does an online radio station need?

Two. A blanket licence from the PROs covering the compositions you play, and SoundExchange for the digital performance right covering the sound recordings. Missing either one is a gap, and the SoundExchange half is the one most small stations miss because almost nobody explains it well.

Why SoundExchange matters more online than on FM

Sound recording copyright holders have traditionally not been paid by terrestrial radio. Section 114(d)(1) of the Copyright Act is the terrestrial broadcast exemption: an AM or FM station that plays a record pays for the composition through its PRO licences, and owes nothing further to the label for the recording.

The internet has no equivalent exemption. Digital audio transmission is a public performance of the sound recording under section 114, so an online station pays that layer too. SoundExchange collects the resulting statutory royalty and distributes it to labels and performers. Because the royalty is calculated on advertising revenue, a station with no ad income registers and reports but pays little or nothing, while a station with sponsorships pays a real bill.

This is why the common claim that “my stream is just my FM station, so nothing changes” is wrong. Simulcasting your FM station online triggers digital performance royalties on the online side of the feed.

Blanket, per-programme or direct

A blanket licence covers an organisation’s entire repertoire for a defined use and period, and it is the practical choice for a station playing a broad mix. A per-programme licence covers a defined event, series or show, and can suit a station that plays music occasionally around long talk blocks. Direct licensing means negotiating with labels and publishers yourself, which is only realistic at real scale.

All four US PROs matter. ASCAP, BMI and SESAC between them cover most of the repertoire, and Global Music Rights is smaller but represents writers who matter to certain genres. A station holding only two of the four is exposed on anything the other two represent, which is a gap that often surfaces years later rather than on day one.

How SoundExchange reporting works in practice

You register your station, install music logging in your playout software so every track is timestamped, and report play data monthly through SoundExchange’s system. Reports need to reach them by the 10th day of the following month. The same logging data feeds your cue sheets, which is why getting logging right on day one saves you an argument later.

Can you use songs you bought, found, or created yourself?

Owning a file does not buy the right to broadcast it. A purchased download or ripped CD is a copy for your own listening. Playing it to an audience needs performance rights, and that is the same rule whether the file came from a store, a friend or a folder you inherited.

Royalty-free is the most expensive misunderstanding in this space. The term describes a price, not a rights status. Many royalty-free tracks are sold under a licence that permits podcast and video use but forbids broadcast or requires separate clearance, and some Creative Commons releases carry attribution conditions or non-commercial terms. Read the actual licence text for every track. “It came free” is not a permissions argument.

Public domain and genuinely out-of-copyright material is the cleanest route. US federal government works, works whose copyright expired, and most music published before 1929 as of 2026. The catch is that a freely available recording is not automatically free of rights: an old composition can be public domain while a modern restoration of a 1940s master recording still belongs to a label. Composition age and recording age are two separate clocks.

Your own music is workable. As the writer you register with a PRO as a songwriter and collect your own performance royalties, and as the performer or producer you are the recording rights holder or need to document that you are. Instrumentals you license for broadcast rather than sync use are another option, and a document listing what each track allows is worth keeping.

Sync licensing is a separate world. If you publish video of your station, or a podcast using music alongside dialogue, you may need a synchronisation licence, which no blanket PRO licence covers.

What other licenses or registrations should a US station consider?

State and local requirements sit alongside the music licences, and they vary more than most guides admit.

• Assumed business name. Most states require registration if you trade as something other than your legal name. If you broadcast on FM you may also need a call sign, but that comes from the FCC, not the state.
• Business formation. An LLC or corporation limits personal liability for contracts and any IP claim. Sole proprietorships work; they just do not separate the station from you.
• Federal tax registration. An EIN from the IRS, plus the right entity classification for the income you take.
• Sales tax and resale permits. Advertising revenue and sponsorship payments can trigger state sales tax or resale certificate rules, and several states now tax digital services. An accountant will tell you in an hour what a guessing loop costs you later.
• Local permits. Some cities require a general business licence, and event or festival appearances add their own.
• Employment law. Hosts on payroll bring minimum wage, overtime, workers’ compensation and payroll tax obligations. Contractors are not automatically cheaper in every state.
• Trademark. Registering your station name or logo protects it once the brand starts appearing on merch and sponsor slides.

Some of these are legal requirements, some are good practice. The one that is unambiguously optional is a trademark filing, and it is also the one most operators regret skipping.

What does it cost to license an online radio station?

Typical US ranges, given as bands rather than quotes, since fees move with rate proceedings. A hobbyist internet-only station with no advertising and no broadcast licence spends nothing on SoundExchange and can often reach non-commercial tiers with each PRO, though administrative rates still exist for organisations of any size. Budget in the low hundreds of dollars a year for a small non-commercial setup, and expect the figure to climb if you take sponsorships.

For monetised stations, the PRO model is percentage of adjusted gross revenue. Adjusted gross revenue is advertising and sponsorship money, with a defined amount of expense deducted, so it is usually lower than your bank balance. ASCAP publishes reduced-fee tiers for qualifying non-commercial stations operating on budgets under a defined threshold, which is where many small community and campus stations land. An advert-laden station can reach four-figure annual PRO and SoundExchange bills, and larger operations pay far more.

On top of that: hosting from a low tens of dollars per month for a plan with a bundled licence, music logging and royalty reporting software, and an occasional hour of a music lawyer or an IP accountant. Direct licensing is the one line item where small stations should not go alone; the negotiation work outweighs any saving at your scale.

Figure these as typical US bands that vary by region, format and revenue, and expect to re-check them when rates change.

A simple licensing checklist before you go live

1. Decide the format. Music-only, talk-only or mixed. Talk-only removes most of the music licensing load, though intro and outro beds and station idents still count.
2. Decide the distribution. Internet-only, or internet plus an FM or LPFM licence. This choice sets whether the FCC is in the picture.
3. Form the business. Entity, EIN, bank account, and assumed name registration if your station name differs from your legal name.
4. Apply to each PRO. ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and Global Music Rights. Expect to answer revenue and audience questions, and to re-certify annually.
5. Register with SoundExchange. Even with no ad revenue. Registration and play reporting are what makes the royalty liability real rather than guessed.
6. Turn on music logging. Every track, timestamped. It feeds SoundExchange reports, cue sheets and your licence evidence all at once.
7. Sort your audio rights track by track. Licensed broadcast tracks, public domain works, cleared royalty-free tracks and your own recordings, all listed in one file.
8. Read the host’s licence terms. Confirm what is included, which PROs it covers, whether it covers SoundExchange, and whether it covers files you upload yourself.
9. Write the sponsor disclosure script. Even if no FCC rule binds you, consistent wording protects the ad relationships you want.
10. Build the records habit. Keep your licences, revenue figures, play reports and cue sheets together. The first licence renewal is much calmer when the paperwork already exists.

Then launch small. Run the stream to a modest audience for a month, check that reporting flows and that your first invoice matches what you projected, and correct before the audience grows.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Start with two applications and a logging habit: ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and Global Music Rights for the compositions you play, and SoundExchange for the recordings, then turn on music logging before your first live stream so the reporting runs from hour one. Register your assumed business name and get an EIN in the same week, because it takes longer than you expect.

Everything else depends on your format, your state and how listeners reach you. A talk-only internet stream carries a fraction of the music burden of a music-only one, and a station with no advertising and no transmitter can stay in the cheapest tier throughout. If your station is adding an FM or LPFM licence, pull in a lawyer at that decision rather than at the penalty stage.