[kenbellows]

How do copyright laws differ between podcasts and broadcast radio? Wouldn't the rights need to be acquired anyway to put it over the airwaves, or is there some fundamental difference between how things are handled on radio vs. the internet?

[lambda]

There's a fundamental difference. Radio broadcasts are generally considered public performances, and generally handled under blanket licenses with ASCAP, BMI, and the like. There is also a separate blanket licensing scheme for digital streaming radio, SoundExchange. There is no blanket licensing for digital downloads; thus, to provide digital downloads that contain music, PRI would have to negotiate separate contracts with each of the copyright holders.

[empthought]

Radio stations can pay royalties to a middleman (SoundExchange) for "ephemeral" rights, but since the mechanism of podcasting requires on-demand playback and downloading to the device, acquiring ephemeral rights is not sufficient.

I think streams where you don't pick the song that comes up next can also be licensed more similarly to radio broadcasts.

The law itself isn't really the question here; it's more the economic entities and standard agreements built to sustain broadcast use of music can't be adapted to podcast use in a cost-effective way.

This is also why we don't have the Massive Attack song as the intro to "House, M.D." on streaming services any more.