How do you go about obtaining permission to play music on websites?

Question

Like lastfm.com, I was thinking of starting my own music site that had reviews, voting and songs to listen to etc. How do I go about doing this and is there laws preventing you from playing music on a site? If I wanted to add a paid download function further down the track, how would I go about that?

I hope this makes sense, any help or links to sites that would help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

Last fm operate the same way as a MySpace Music page - only a genuine artist can upload music. If you are an artist, you can sign up as an artist, but your question is not clear on this point. If you simply want to upload your favorite music, that is illegal, and trying to charge people for downloading music that is not yours will land you in big trouble.
The copyright law is the same all over the world - simply using a different website doesn't change it. A musician makes music - it is like his job - and the money he earns from royalties (money paid by websites and radio stations to either ASCAP or BMI) is like his salary. Anybody uploading music that doesn't belong to them is effectively stealing part of that salary.