UPDATE (July 25): IPRS has withdrawn this order, and will be coming out with a new one soon with "rationalised" rates for sponsored and ticketed events, and no licensing requirement for free streams. Read our interview with IPRS CEO Rakesh Nigam on the subject here. We missed this earlier: The Indian Performing Rights Society, a copyright society that has several musicians as members, will charge artists or organisers livestreaming performances a ₹20,000 fee, plus taxes, it announced earlier this month. The tariffs, which came into force on July 1 and apply to music as well as literary works, require fees to be paid to the IPRS even if an artist is performing without taking money from sponsors, or broadcasting the stream publicly without getting any revenue. If a sponsor is involved in the livestream, the fee jumps up to ₹60,000 plus taxes. If such streams go on for more than two hours, the cost jumps even more, to ₹1 lakh plus taxes. [caption id="attachment_218668" align="aligncenter" width="1107"] Source: IPRS[/caption] Artists or organisers may also have to get separate licences for hosting a replay of the livestream, and if sponsors or ticketing is involved, they have to submit a list of the titles that were performed. IPRS said that these fees would be revised to catch up with inflation, using the Consumer Price Index as a reference point. Impact on performers Music and performance rights organisations around the world have been struggling, as have artists themselves, with a lack of income, as the…
