When uploading a Podcast to the URY Website, certain guidelines must be met, both to comply with licencing restrictions and to meet certain quality guidelines. This policy lists things you cannot do with podcasting, but also intends to provide alternative options.
The Policy
- URY Podcasts must not include beds from the Beds and Beats service. You can easily identify these within the Beds playlist as they have information after the name in brackets, e.g. (Full 2min). See solution A.
- URY Podcasts must not contain any amount of a track from URY's Central Music Library, unless you can confirm a licence is held outside our PPL or PRS agreements that allows us to do so. Certain Promo albums may have this. It is a common misconception that up to 30 seconds of a track may be used for free. This is not the case. See Solution A.
- Where URY Podcasts contain content from an earlier live broadcast, this content should be edited as much as possible to ensure the track does not have silence or content that may require the listener to have been listening to portions of the broadcast that are not included in the Podcast. In any situation, logger content must not be directly uploaded as a Podcast. See Solution B.
- URY Podcasts must not contain racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise offensive opinions, nor content depicting graphic sex, violence, gore, or hate themes, nor references to violence. You must show impartiality on all political, sectarian, or otherwise contentious issues. Podcasts must not contain other mature or offensive content or potential triggers without a clear and concise warning of what this content is. Contentious issues must be cleared by the relevant content Head of Team or Station Management. See Solution C.
- URY Podcasts may contain explicit language, provided that a content warning is inserted at the start of the podcast and in the description (see Solution C). Gratuitous swearing is always unacceptable.
iTunes and Spotify Policy
If you intend to submit your podcasts to iTunes or Spotify, you must also follow their relevant policies - here's Apple's. The relevant parts are (all the technical aspects are taken care of by our system):
- Your podcast must have an image that matches the requirements (1400x1400-3000x3000, not blurry, misaligned, explicit, containing Apple hardware, the terms Apple Inc., Apple Podcasts, Apple Music, iTunes Store, or iTunes, etc.)
- If your podcast contains explicit language, it must be marked as explicit (OUR SYSTEM DOES NOT CURRENTLY SUPPORT THIS. Until this is implemented, do not submit explicit podcasts to iTunes!).
- Your podcast may not contain any references to illegal drugs.
- Your podcast must not contain the terms Apple Inc., Apple Podcasts, Apple Music, iTunes Store, or iTunes.
The Options
Solution A
As of January 2014, all shows that do not actively opt-out will be automatically uploaded to https://mixcloud.com/ury1350 if they have played at least 8 tracks. This will normally be made available within 2 hours of your show being broadcast.
Mixcloud is a budding Cloud service that is fully licensed by the relevant companies. If you provide tracklists, then you can upload entire shows unedited. The only restriction is that a Mixcloud upload must contain at least eight tracks.
Solution B
All URY Computers have Reaper and Adobe Audition available for basic sound editing. The use of Reaper is taught in Advanced Studio Training.
Solution C
The following text is a sample disclaimer that can be included at end of the Description field when creating a Podcast. The text must be in bold text.
This programme contains content of a (describe content) nature that may offend or disturb some listeners. Listener discretion is advised.
Updates to this Policy
The URY Committee reserves the right to update this policy at any time and will notify members if and when this takes place.