REAL Music is fully licensed to present copyrighted work via ASCAP, BMI and SESAC.

We encourage our listeners to understand that copyrights protect recorded music and that bootlegging, pirating and illegal downloading hurts the musicians and artists that create the music for us.

U.S. law requires a Webcaster to obtain permission from the copyright owner of a musical composition before the Webcaster plays the song.

ASCAP, BMI and SESAC are the performing rights organizations that issue "public performance licenses" from a copyright owner in exchange for payment of a license fee or royalty.

Every song that we play on our REAL Music station contains two separate copyrighted works.

• The first work is called the "musical composition," which consists of the song's music and lyrics.
  
  
• The second work, made while the band played the song in a recording studio or at a concert, is called the "sound recording."

The copyright to a musical composition and the copyright to the sound recording can be owned by different people.

• For example, a songwriter may agree to assign the copyrights to his or her musical compositions to a music publishing company in exchange for an annual salary.
  
  
• It becomes the music publisher's job to promote the song so that a popular artist or band will record it.
  
  
• When the song is broadcast on radio or TV or is Webcast on the Internet, the music publisher and the songwriter are entitled to be paid royalties from the "public performance" of the song.
  
  
• So, the music publisher, the songwriter and the recording artist can be different from one another. Other times, the music publisher, songwriter and recording artist may be the same person. For example, an artist who writes and performs his or her own songs may decide to act as his or her own music publisher.