I heard I can allow site's visitors to listen music (mp3 file) for 20-30 seconds and it doesn't count as "illegal music distribution" thus absolutely legal. Is that true? What is that limit (in seconds) exactly for US?
Yeah 30 seconds is the maximum length any protected media can be played for publicly without requiring a license. This is a global law as music is mostly produced in US, UK but played worldwide.
@FreeTheNoob - this is why I hate posting or trying to help someone out people give you red rep for no logical reason, instead of correcting you if you where indeed wrong ( not saying you are ) they just give you red rep and not even tell the correct answer. To me this means they should get red rep themselves. But I believe this falls under the "Fair Use" category. Where if your goals are to earn compensation and the song is the heart of the project then yes you have to pay regardless of the length. If it is for educational purposes and no intent to have money earned then you can use up to 20 seconds. ( I know a few radio broadcasters as well as the gentlemen who owns the local radio station in my area this is what he told me )
@FreeTheNoob - do not worry too much - I've tried to help someone in a thread and some other guy made me an idiot - ignore that - it's the best thing you can do - this way you are smarter than the one who attacked you I think FCM is right - if you intend to earn money then length doesn't matter
Someone who is on the right track. What you heard is that, if you're trying to sell their music, length of about 20 seconds is what companies generally will allow in making the effort to sell. If you aren't selling music but trying to make money and the company owning the rights gets nothing... well... figure it out. You're using and making money off of someone else's copyrighted work without compensating them at all.
Thanks for the information, guys! I believe I should explain situation further to get more precise answers: I want to create music charts site/script (well, I almost finished it) and place affiliate links to 3rd party MP3 music store (like Amazon) + I want to provide 20-30 seconds fragments to visitors so they could make decision to purchase music before they go to shop (to prevent wasting of traffic). I guess this cannot be counted as educational project - but this is clearly direct promotion of music companies' products (for share of income) so it may be counted as "fair use" (like music stores selling CDs don't pay for possibility to play music for buyers). Or it's not? Anyway going to ask Amazon about this.