The PPL Small Webcaster Licence is for online radio services that generate revenues of less than £5,000 per year and whose annual total streaming does not exceed the streaming limit of 270,000 Performances (ie. one Performance is when one user streams one sound recording broadcast in the service)..
Online radio services are required to pay royalties for the music that they stream to their users. The 2010 licence fees for Small Webcasters are as follows:
(a) £156.60 as a non-refundable advance against Webcasting royalties in respect of each channel in the service
(b) £23.49 as a non-refundable advance against Dubbing royalties in respect of each channel in the service
To ensure that PPL’s record company and performer members are being fairly compensated for their works, all PPL Small Webcaster Licence holders are required to compile and submit a Webcasting Report at the end of every quarter.
The Webcasting Report should detail the total number of listener hours for the service (ie. the aggregate duration that all users streamed the service), and the average number of sound recordings broadcast per hour for the quarter.
PPL uses this data to calculate the streaming and dubbing fees each station is due to pay. If a service generates streaming and dubbing fees greater than the advance payment made under the Small Webcaster Licence, then PPL will either invoice for the additional licence fees due, or will move the licensee to the Standard Webcaster Licence.