Nothing on this network stops a broadcast — except one thing. This page is that thing, plus the honest version of what your station's music is licensed under, what HQ carries for you, and what is genuinely yours to carry. Ten minutes here saves you a lawyer's letter later.
Excluded repertoire never airs — fail-closed
Certain rights holders (currently GMR) are excluded network-wide. The blocklist lives in the system and is refreshed on schedule by HQ. If a track is blocked, it does not go on a playlist — not for a special show, not once, not faded under a voiceover. There is no operator override, and asking for one is asking to stop the network's music, everywhere. This is the single music-rights rule that can actually take a station off the rails: respect the block.
Check it, record the verdict, then playlist it
Unsigned artists in the Media Library are cleared by direct artist permission — play them freely, no lookup ever. Commercial pre-recorded tracks are different, and there are two lanes: the song and the recording. The rights check card on your dashboard's Music Rights page clears the song lane (it searches the Songview database covering the big US societies) — run it, let the verdict record itself. The recording lane has no shortcut: the network uses no statutory webcast license, so a commercial master needs direct permission from the master owner on file with HQ before it airs. No permission, no playlist — route it to licensing@ and play something that's cleared. Check → verdict → permission → playlist, in that order.
The honest split
HQ carries: the licensing program (US performing rights through ASCAP; BMI in application; country licenses opened wherever the network
has real listeners) and the direct-rights-only doctrine on recordings — no statutory webcast
license, every master airs by direct permission,
the blocklist, the register of what's actually executed, and the reporting.
Your station carries: the pre-air check habit (module 02), honest talk to sponsors (module 05),
local performances and events in your own venue (separate rights lane — ask before you promise a live
broadcast), and telling HQ when anything rights-shaped lands in your inbox.
Your logs file themselves
Every play on your transmitter is logged automatically — title, artist, ISRC — and HQ's reporting engine exports per-play reports of use to the societies the network holds licenses with. You do nothing. What makes those reports worth money to artists is metadata: the upload form captures writers, master owner and ISRC, and that data rides with the track into your logs. If an artist hands you a track outside the portal, send them through the portal — that's not bureaucracy, that's how they get paid.
Your listeners literally trigger the licenses
The network does not buy licenses for empty countries. HQ's demand board watches real plays per market; when a market shows real listening, its licenses get bought — in order, cheapest unlock first. Your station broadcasting IS the demand signal. What this means for you: the day your market lights up, the paperwork is already moving, and nothing about it lands on your desk.
The honest line, word for word
Sponsors, venues and listeners will ask if you're "licensed." Say exactly this and stop: "Our music runs under the U-Rock® Network licensing program, and every unsigned artist we break is played with their direct permission." Don't name societies, don't promise coverage you haven't seen on the register, don't improvise. Anything past that line: licensing@urock.network answers, with the live register in front of them.