Background Music: DJ Radios

Every track streaming on DJ Radios is unreleased and supplied directly by independent DJs, producers, artists and labels for promotional use. None of it is managed by a performing rights organisation, which makes it a legal alternative or complement to a traditional venue licence.

The part venues actually ask for is the paperwork. The app generates an official certificate documenting the subscription period, covering ASCAP, BMI and SESAC in the United States, PRS for Music in the United Kingdom, SOCAN in Canada, APRA AMCOS in Australia and New Zealand, and other organisations worldwide.

One subscription covers iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV, with 24/7 continuous DJ sets rather than a looping playlist. An hour of free streaming is available with no card and no account.

• Unreleased, DJ-curated tracks cleared for commercial broadcast
• One-tap compliance certificates for the major performing rights organisations
• Continuous 24/7 mixed sets rather than a repeating playlist
• One subscription across iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV, with AirPlay
• An hour of free streaming with no account and no card

A cafe owner playing a consumer streaming service in the dining room is technically unlicensed, and the letter that eventually arrives is the first they hear of it. The usual fix is an expensive venue licence. DJ Radios takes the other route: build the catalogue out of music that was never registered with a rights organisation in the first place, then give the venue a document that says so.

The developer has been writing native Apple software since the first public iPhone SDK in 2008. He works from Rennes, France, under SAS Corvaisier, and has published 24 apps across 7 platforms, from iPhone and iPad through to Apple Watch, Mac, Apple TV, Android, Fire TV and Roku. Everything is built natively, one platform at a time, with no cross-platform wrapper in between.