[andygrif]

Speaking as someone who has worked in the music industry for 15 years and in the last few years negotiating copyright licensing, I might be able to help you.

A lot will depend on what it is that you want to do, the geographical location you want to do it in and/or from and the type of music you want to use.

In some cases you will need to contact the rights owners directly on a per-track basis and in others you can negotiate blanket licensing with umbrella bodies such as MCPS/PRS and/or PPL.

One word of warning about attempting to negotiate with these boys, especially PPL, they're all lawyers, they know more than you or I ever will about copyright and they will try to fleece as much money out of you as you're prepared to pay, and possibly a little more.

You need to know about similar licenses they have issued to other operators, you need to know about legal challenges to similar licenses and any court rulings on both sides.

Don't even attempt to contact them until you can say you're able to handle this side of things.

I could go on for a long time about dealing with each of the agencies and what they do....I'll sum it up for you in three lines:

PRS - Performing Rights Society, handle payments made for the public performance of compositions (i.e. not the original sound recording but the composer, publisher and in the case of classical music arranger rights). Public performance includes broadcast (such as streaming on the net as well as traditional media) background music or a band playing in a bar.

MCPS - Mechanical Copyright Protection Society. They are now one with PRS, and the reason for this is that they represent the same people but for different uses. They handle the 'mechanical copyright', which means the copyright that must be paid for storing and duplicating music titles. This can include the manufacture of background music cds/tapes, storing music on hard disk and any compilation album that is made in the UK.

PPL - Phonographic Performance Ltd. These boys handle everything...well as much as they can anyway. Of the three, they're the most commercially fierce and like to act as the tax collector of music. They are owned by the record labels collectively and like to charge as much as possible for anything even thinking about using music. But strangely when you take a new proposition to them, they can't handle it. I won't go into the reasons why, just take my word for it! Anyway, they collect and distribute money on behalf of the record labels from broadcasters and dubbers (people who legitimately copy music such as background music companies, music on hold etc.).

If you want to know more PM me and I'll try and help you out...although I would normally charge for such a service, I might do a freebee if it's interesting!