[nullc]

> A bigger legal problem is the copyright question.

_Unfortunately_, statutory licensing means that you can license most commercial music for your station for a couple hundred per year ( https://www.prometheusradio.org/music-licensing-noncommercia... ). Considering the investment of time that goes into scheduling, promoting, etc. a successful station the licensing costs aren't that big a deal.

I say unfortunately because the existence of blanket rates and in particular compulsory licensing has undermined the free market, and as a result new/independent performers have a much harder time getting aired because they essentially can't compete in terms of price (e.g. you can play our stuff free!) because almost every station/venue is already paying blanket rates and doesn't have much marginal cost in playing the commercial stuff.

[kragen]

Right, but those rates don't apply to internet streaming. This proposed new service isn't exactly internet-based, but it isn't an FCC-licensed commercial radio station either, and it's digital and packet switched; you can bet your left ovary that sooner or later it would face music industry mafiosi arguing in court that it should have to pay the internet streaming radio rates, not the ones KVIL pays.

[nullc]

Follow the link and look midway through it, statutory licensing also applies to non-interactive internet streaming too-- though the rules are somewhat different.