For example, in 1998, the passing of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act meant that US-based Internet radio and satellite radio stations would have to pay separate royalties to recording artists and sound recording copyright owners, unlike traditional over-the-air stations that paid royalties only for the use of the underlying musical works.
[3] In the United Kingdom, Internet radio stations may obtain licenses from both the MCPS-PRS Alliance and Phonographic Performance Limited.
[citation needed] In addition to these two main licenses, stations may also pay the PPL dubbing fee in order to store those tracks to a hard-drive or other storage device for playout,[citation needed] and the MCPS-PRS TV and Radio Advertisement License in order to use commercial copyrighted music in advertisements and promotional pieces.
In 2015 Rendőrség (English: ′Guard of Order′ or Police) in coordinated action was raided more than 200 'illegal' stations, seized streaming servers, PCs.
SoundExchange also works with music industry partners in the United States and around the world to collect performance royalties generated through airplay on Internet radio stations.
IRUC's system utilizes standardised call sign prefixes as allocated by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).