UK Podcasters Association allies with AIM to legitimise use of independent music in podcasts
The UK Podcasters Association, set up in May last year, has reached an agreement with the UK-based Association of Independent Music (AIM) to allow its members preferential, legitimate, access to AIM’s podcast licence.
This means that UK podcasters will gain unlimited access to full-length music tracks from the likes of Paul Weller, Bloc Party, Mylo, Basement Jaxx, Stereophonics, The Killers, and many thousands more, and be able to use them freely in their own podcasts.
The AIM podcast licence covers 30,000 tracks from labels such as V2, XL Recordings, Cooking Vinyl, and Beggars Group, and ensures that they, and their artists, are paid when a podcaster uses their music.
UKPA’s Chairman, Dean Whitbread, said that the agreement raised the bar for music podcast programme making. “Podcasting can make a real impact on music sales, but this has to be done in a responsible way. UKPA is committed to working with AIM and other organisations and businesses to develop legal music podcasting in the UK ”
Alison Wenham from AIM, said, “AIM’s licence allows full tracks to be used in Podcasts, which is what consumers and Podcasters want. In the UKPA, we have a partner who appreciates that music should be properly licensed. There are opportunities for the independent sector and the pioneers of podcasting to use a library of over 30,000 full length tracks (and growing rapidly) from some of the premier independent companies and artists, to come up with imaginative programming and give the fans what they want.”
It’s an interesting alliance. Whether it will encourage those who create their own music-laden podcasts without proper attribution of the original artists and labels is another matter. After all, podcasts are just 21st century “mix tapes”, right?
