By my friend Steve Merrylees.

If anyone has the radio booked, gimme a shout and i'll book. Until then, enjoy.

If that is a "mix session" it might be breaking the RIAA/Loudcity rules for defined breaks between tracks.

Which is the same reason why I can't beatmix-DJ live on MeCha radio. :(

Arse. Really?

This is all I can find:

* In any three-hour period, you should not intentionally program more than three songs (and not more than two songs in a row) from the same recording; you should not intentionally program more than four songs (and not more than three songs in a row) from the same recording artist or anthology/box set.
* Archived programs (those that, when accessed, always start in the same place and play in the same order) should be at least five hours long, and should not be available for more than two weeks at a time.
* Continuous "looped" programs (those that always perform in the same order, but are accessed in a continuous play stream) should be at least three hours long.
* Rebroadcasts of programs can be performed at scheduled times three times in a two-week period (for programs of less than one hour) and four times (for programs of an hour or more).
* Do not publish advance program guides or use other means to pre-announce when particular sound recordings will be played. However, a webcaster may name one or two artists to illustrate the type of music on a particular channel; and, DJ "teaser" announcement using artists' names are permitted, but only those that do not specify the time a song will be played.
* Use only sound recordings that are authorized for performance in the United States (e.g.: do not play bootleg recordings).
* Provide some means for the end user to identify the song, artist and album title of the recording as it is being played.
* Lastly, the DMCA also requires that you accommodate technological copyright protection measures or pass through any identification, which may be included in the song recording itself, as long as it does not impose substantial costs or burdens on the webcaster. Also, do not deploy or support technological means to evade these requirements; and, do not explicitly encourage home taping.

Nothing about mixes as far as I can see. Please correct me (MP?) if I'm wrong and I'll cut cos I don't want mecha to lose its license.

I'm searching for that rule too, and can't find it. Never heard it before.

Loq, you have a cite?

As long as what I'm playing is tagged properly (ie it's Steve's mix, and I'll pester Steve for the tracklist if required) I don't see a problem.

keep playing! keep playing, damn you, man!

*asplodes*

LOL. Until the pigs break down my door and gas and taser me into submission.

Really. Truly. Each track has to be individually identified with an ID3 tag and all that.

If the mix session has been ripped into song segments and each has a proper ID3 tag identifying the original artist and track name (DJ name is optional), and your player "gaps" the MP3 playback it might be legal.

It apparently doesn't matter, either, if its not even in the RIAA/ASCAP/BMI libraries, either. It could even be a mix session entirely of music you wrote yourself and pressed to acetates or CDs or DJ'ed with an MP3 djing app.. It has to be tagged for licensing purposes.

(Of course, the legal end run for this is calling your entirely self-created "mix" as one single song. And that could actually be completely and legally true - you just happened to use turntables as instroments in processing your own combinations.)

I think you're okay, uws. Loq, if you can find that rule and send it or post it here, that would help.

BTW, if you like what you hear, drop Steve a mail (email's in the Merrylees link.)

Provide some means for the end user to identify the song, artist and album title of the recording as it is being played.

Is *each* track in the mix an individual file, with accompanying, correct ID3 tags? This is the part that Loudcity is most worried about - it's how they stay legal, as their licensing *cough* protection scheme payments to the licensing groups are based on this.


Anyways, I was believe I was first told this by either Taz or mudpuppie back when we first started broadcasting, and I was crushed I couldn't do mixing and experimental turntablism and stuff over the air.

I remember something in the original email list of rules about it, let me see if I can find 'em in gmail.


And I totally don't want to be a party pooper, 'cause I'd totally love to start broadcasting mix sessions and doing some live shit, too.

Loq, I agree which is why I was concerned. To be frank I'm surprised this hasn't been confronted by the software market yet, like the makers of Traktor for instance (I'm guessing it hasn't - I don't use it.) But to mix live online and have the tags for the mp3s to be automatically sent down the line as you play seems like a very simple remedy.

Anyways, I was believe I was first told this by either Taz or mudpuppie back when we first started broadcasting, and I was crushed I couldn't do mixing and experimental turntablism and stuff over the air.

Wasn't me. This is the first I've heard of it.

I have no idea whether the "mix" thing is okay or not, because I'm not really even sure what it is and I don't have time to listen right now.

I guess my hesitation (if I understand what y'all are talking about) is that LoudCity can pull broadcast info, and if it shows that you've been broadcasting "Steve Merrylees - Improper Techno" for 2 hours, it might prompt some suspicion.

OK, I've searched my gmail, and maybe Taz (and certainly not mudpuppie) informed me of this.

Apparently hellbient and I had a conversation about it, though, and he brought it up, and there's a MeCha thread somewhere discussing the problems, and the question was (according to hellbient's email) never answered to satisfaction.

However, this "DMCA highlight" from Loudcity's DMCA page seems applicable, as well as the individual tracks thing.

Use only sound recordings that are authorized for performance in the United States (e.g.: do not play bootleg recordings)


My version of Traktor will only export XML playlists or the like, but it won't push ID3 tags or anything that I'm aware of.

I've just done a quick search of various tags: Loudcity License Tag Mix Banned Allowed &tc and came up with nothing where folks had been banned for playing a mix. More, it appears a lot of people are playing them.

OK, I've searched my gmail, and maybe Taz (and certainly not mudpuppie)did not inform me of this.

Sorry, just to be clear.

Anyway, yeah, broadcasting a 60, 90, or 180 minute "set" with one, single ID3 tag is probably going to be the sort of thing that attracts attention.

I just read something else about that, too, hang on...

You're gonna break LT's heart you know.

Err, nevermind, it was in my email to hellbient:

I spent the morning e-mailing dodgy back and forth about this, until I think he'd had enough. I had the same reactions - what if I play stuff I'm sure isn't part of the RIAA, underground stuff, my stuff? I didn't really get a direct answer on this, his concern seems to be that when you have a simple large, long file showing up in the playlist, it can send a red flag to those watching, and can result in a closer watching eye. It's all too fucking ridiculous. The message basically ends up being "if you don't play our music our way, we'll come down on you". Okay, slightly paranoid perhaps, but I just want to share the music I love, a lot of which is on vinyl. I'm just not interested in throwing files into a list and watching them play.

Which is relevant, I think.

Again, if your mix is ripped to individual tracks or you're pushing proper ID3 tags per track it shouldn't be a problem - but the ID3 tag thing is the crucial, crucial part here.

I really don't want to be the bearer of bad news. I fucking hate the RIAA, ASCAP, etc. I make it a point to not purchase (or even download) music that exists in their catalogs.

But I don't want to see radio MeCha go away, either.

If it was my baliwick I'd say go fucking nuts - mash it up, go fucking crazy go nuts. I've been considering creating a shoutcast server just for doing mixes, but my upstream here sucks total ass. Fucking Qwest DSL.

I'll be IRC.

I don't want to see mecha radio go either which is I'm erring on the side of caution. If anyone thinks i should stop, tell me.

I use Mix Meister to put long mix sets together, and there's only one way to export the file - as a single mp3 with only one ID3 tag with that prog, too. So it may seem that the only way to do it is to make mixes of, say, 6 songs and put all the info into one ID3 tag. It'd make for a long title, but may be the only way around it.
I still don't know how people get around that by just putting "DJ Mix" or whatever, on their mixes. I'm looking at Digitally Imported, and the longer mixes don't have the differentiation. hmmm.

(Some of the music I enjoy, and play on Radio Mecha, also falls into this category--if we learn anything concrete, please let me know.)

I've played long mixes before, on one or the other or both of these theories: a) some of 'em were released as one-track CDs, or two-track records, b) some of them are other people's radio show mixes.

Anyway, yeah, broadcasting a 60, 90, or 180 minute "set" with one, single ID3 tag is probably going to be the sort of thing that attracts attention.

Any time you want me to distract 'em with some half-hour jazz songs, just say the word.

I still don't know how people get around that by just putting "DJ Mix" or whatever, on their mixes. I'm looking at Digitally Imported, and the longer mixes don't have the differentiation. hmmm.

For the purposes of this argument, we're specifically talking about Loudcity's rules, not general RIAA/DCMA rules. Loudcity is not really a stream server, it is a licensing agency that defrays the cost of running a webcast server across many users. (Undoubtably distributing costs by accounting for the fact not all stations broadcast 24/7, and by accounting for the fact not all of the songs played are owned by the individual licensed catalog agencies.)

Digitally Imported is an independent station with their own servers and ISP, and may be outside of the reach of the DMCA or RIAA, or (more likely) may have licensing with the appropriate agency in their jurisdiction.

Likewise, in my experience with college radio we never had any problems doing live mixes or playing recorded mixes. We were supposed to back-announce our tracks, but that was a function of the FCC community radio license* not RIAA licensing, and we only had to log our playlists if we wanted to report them to any of the various independent radio monitors, like RPM.

*(Back announcing new music was part of our charter , indicating a unique community service. We were also emphatically *not* allowed to play "mainstream" music, IE anything currently in play on commercial radio, or basically anything that ever broke into Billboard's bestseller charts over the years. Yeah, it got confusing, but it made for lots of good, new music.)

Anyways. I'd like to get this question answered, because if it wasn't apparent I'd like to broadcast mixes, live or pre-recorded. I just want to make sure we're clear, first.

Perhaps I need to ask Loudcity.