Just like a local concert hall, bar, or other "hangout" music pay a fee to allow copyrighted music to be performed on the premises, virtual gathering places like the Hangout sites are required to pay when they stream recordings of copyrighted music.

To avoid these fees up to this point, Hangout members were only allowed to post their own recordings of songs which they owned the copyright to, or which were in the public domain. I'm happy to announce that the Hangout Network (Banjo, Fiddle, Reso, Flatpicker, Bass, and Drum Hangouts) is now licensed to stream our members' performances of copyrighted songs which are rights-managed through ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC.

This means we can legally stream our member's performances of most of today's popular music, and just as importantly, it means songwriters will get paid their share of performance royalties when that happens.

The Copyright Notice when posting MP3s has been updated to read thus:

Copyright Notice:
You are allowed to post recordings of yourself performing:
- public-domain (non-copyrighted) songs
- original songs written by yourself
- songs written by someone else and licensed through ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC

Anything posted in violation of this notice may be removed by the webmaster without prior notice, and may result in your myHangout account being locked. Read complete copyright policy.