Content by Anthony Dockrill

One of the bottlenecks in any creative enterprise is copyright. If you work in radio, you’ve probably run into this wall over the years. Copyright is a good thing, and in the second part of this series I am going to argue radio’s copyright is being exploited, but right now I want to make the case that outdated music licensing rules are stopping innovation and potentially killing off the industry and new artists’ careers.

One of the major budget lines for any radio station is APRA and PPCA licence fees, which allow stations to play music on air and stream on their websites and apps, but copyright pops up everywhere.

The way copyright has been exploited by large tech companies has left radio shortchanged and may spell the doom of the industry. This is a clear case of a two-speed system, and the radio industry is stuck in the slow lane—not by choice. When the podcast revolution hit over a decade ago, all good radio makers wanted to get involved. Working at 2SER, this meant having to explain to keen music program makers that they couldn’t podcast their show or versions of it because the music wasn’t cleared nor was clearable—unless Warren Buffett bought the station.

This restriction has meant that podcasting at 2SER and across the industry is predominantly talk and interviews. While this has shaped podcasting into a rich and vibrant format, it’s also meant that a lot of what the radio industry does is essentially banned. The main restriction exists because podcasts, being downloaded onto devices, are treated as a form of publishing.

This ignores how people actually use podcasts: not as personal copies to file and keep on a shelf, but as convenient and transportable content that is consumed and moved on from.

The unfairness arises when we consider that music streaming services don’t face the same onerous music clearances, allowing people to stream and in some cases download music and consume it in a convenient form.

This hasn’t just unfairly hampered the radio industry—it has shut them out entirely.

Yes, radio has adapted, and music shows are now available on demand on station websites and through apps. But this is relatively clunky compared to the free-form nature of podcasting, and it means that in practical terms, the podcasting wave has passed by music programmers.

I believe this situation is directly connected to the current state of music consumption. As streaming has taken over how many people consume music—bypassing radio altogether—people are listening to less new music, and new artists are finding it harder to break through and almost impossible to make a living.

Algorithmic programming has removed human curation and passion, replacing it with content designed to numb. More importantly, it has removed local players and local artists from the table. The result isn’t that the radio industry failed to adapt—it wanted to but was kept out of this space by inflexible and restrictive music licensing.

Is it too late?

It’s not, but I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for radio to be set free. The barriers remain the same as they were 10 years ago; the status quo still makes money for those who control the licensing. Whether the radio industry will still be around to keep paying fees in the future is conveniently swept under the rug—which is to say, business as usual.

Anthony Dockrill is a Digital Producer at Pod Jam and the former Program Director of 2SER FM Sydney.