Music licensing

Royalty fees for internet broadcasters

Streaming licensed music to listeners in the United States normally takes a licence for the songs and a licence for the recordings. For the songs, BMI, ASCAP, SESAC and GMR each cover only the repertoire they represent, so a station needs the ones whose works it plays. For the recordings there is the statutory licence, administered through SoundExchange. Here is what that costs, what has to be reported, and the alternative if you would rather not pay it.

Broadcasting worship services? A separate, much cheaper licensing model applies to you. Jump to worship broadcasters

Pay the fees, or block US listeners

Small broadcasters lost the discounted SoundExchange schedule on 1 January 2016, so there is no third option. The choice is yours to make per station.

Option 1

Get licensed

To legally broadcast licensed music online — through your website or your mobile app — you need to be licensed by every organisation that represents the songs you play (BMI, ASCAP, SESAC or GMR) and to use the statutory licence for recordings, paid through SoundExchange.

For a small station the published starting points are: ASCAP's smallest licence at $336 a year, SoundExchange's minimum of $1,000 a year per station, BMI from about a dollar a day, and SESAC by quote. Fees then rise with your revenue and listening.

Option 2

Block US listeners

On a Server Room radio station, on every plan, you set the country limits yourself in the control panel: leave the United States out and US listeners are refused, which takes the US licensing requirement off the table entirely.

We can also walk you through getting the licences instead. Not sure which way to go? New customers get a free consultation — call us or start a chat.

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Reporting

Each of the four entities below requires monthly or quarterly reports of gross revenue, of impression counts, or of both. Server Room provides the monthly royalty reports covering your streams; the financial reports have to come from your own organisation.

Fee schedules

What the main licences charge. Which of them you need depends on your playlist; GMR, which represents its own smaller group of writers, gives terms directly.

The rates on this page are the 2026 schedules. Confirm the current year's figures with each organisation before you budget — every link below goes to their own licensing page.

ASCAP

2026 US digital licence — annual fee by session and revenue threshold.

Annual fee by session threshold (rows) and service revenue threshold (columns)
Session threshold Revenue under $24,600 $24,601 – $49,200 $49,201 – $98,400
Less than 369,000 $336 $674 $1,347
369,001 – 738,000 $422 $844 $1,684
738,001 – 1,476,000 $506 $1,008 $1,762

Request an ASCAP digital licence

SESAC

Internet licence — SESAC publishes no fee schedule and quotes each station on request.

  • Revenue-driven services Based on revenue
  • Other services Aggregate tuning hours

Request a SESAC internet licence

BMI

Digital Multi-Use Licence — priced on forecast gross revenue and aggregate streaming hours.

  • Starting price About $1 a day
  • Term 1 year, no auto-renewal
  • Reporting Annual revenue and streaming hours

Get a BMI digital licence

SoundExchange

2026 commercial webcaster rates under the statutory licence SoundExchange administers — per station, plus a rate for every performance.

  • Minimum annual fee $1,000 / station
  • Minimum cap, over 100 stations or channels $100,000
  • Per performance, non-subscription $0.0025
  • Per performance, subscription $0.0032

Ask SoundExchange about the statutory licence by email

Worship broadcasters

A special licensing model is available to worship broadcasters in the United States. It covers ASCAP, BMI and SESAC but not the statutory licence administered through SoundExchange, which is separate.

Annual fee by average weekly attendance

WORSHIPcast fees from 1 January 2026, by average weekly attendance, plus a one-time $25 set-up fee.

Average weekly attendance Annual fee
1 – 199 $352
200 – 499 $532
500 – 1,999 $1,012
2,000 – 5,999 $1,542
6,000 – 14,999 $2,642
15,000 and above $3,772

Where to get the licences

The worship licence, WORSHIPcast, comes from Christian Copyright Solutions. It covers ASCAP, BMI and SESAC for live services, not pre-recorded music:

Purchase a worship licence

SoundExchange is separate and is not covered by the worship model. Its minimum annual fee is $1,000; contact them directly about it:

licenseerelations@soundexchange.com

Not sure which licences your station needs?

Tell us where your listeners are and what you play, and we will talk you through what to look at — including whether blocking US listeners is the simpler answer for you. Treat this page as general information rather than legal advice.

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