When applying streaming music to a (flash) website, do you need to apply for a license? How does the copyright laws work regarding streaming music? Or is it legal simply to put music on the site without any authorization first? Remember, this is simply for background music and not for download.

generally, i tend not to care

just dont let anyone know you own the site JUUUUUST in case...

but if you want to do it legally, depending on where you live you probably have to get a license. if you live in sweden you dont have to though hahaha.

You would be breaking copyright laws if you streamed the music on your site without permission from the copyright holder. The chances of being caught (or actioned) are very small but still, it would be "illegal".

Een as background music, the file is being sent and processed by their computer. Although there are a few ways to dodge copyright laws, it's usually best to just stick to works which are public domain. There are a couple sites which have collections of music that you can use, as long as you either ask for permission or provide credit.

http://www.mikseri.net/artists/?id=48147
was one such site, which was posted here somewhere.

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/
Newgrounds also has a fairly extensive library of music files you can use for just about anything.

There are probably several others, but these are the two which I happened to have bookmarked.