No Sunday of silence for internet radio

The outlook wasn't brilliant for internet radio yesterday, after the U.S. Court of Appeals refused to postpone an increase in royalty rates that stations must pay to stream music. Filing her article early, presumably, Washington Post reporter Kendra Marr called Sunday’s fee deadline the “day of reckoning.”

However, executive director John Simson of SoundExchange (royalty-rate setting organization representing record labels) announced later in the evening that his group will hold off enforcing the higher rates for small and noncommercial webcasters, as long as good-faith negotiations continue with Digital Media Association, the representatives for internet radio.

“For the people who want to comply with the law and are in bona fide negotiations with us, we don’t want these people to be intimidated,” Simson told Radio and Internet Newsletter, clarifying that his group approves streaming by stations paying “under the license they had.”

At a round table discussion yesterday, SoundExchange offered to accept a minimum fee cap of $50,000 per service at $500 a channel for broadcasters who use piracy-limiting technology and meticulously report what is played. That's down from $6,000 per channel as preferred by the Copyright Royalty Board. Options regarding percentage-of-revenue royalties and per-performance rates are still up in the air.

Wired reports that the tentative deal "affects only webcasters participating in CRB hearings convened in Congress this week aimed at winning a reprieve for the industry, according to a source familiar with the negotiations who requested anonymity."

Of course, any cash burden is difficult for a service that garners little profit for practitioners.

Pandora’s Tim Westergren attributes internet radio’s survival thus far to lobbying pressures from listeners like you, so head over to SaveNetRadio.org for information useable in letters and phone calls to congress. The so-called Internet Radio Equality Act in particular would allow webcasters to switch to percentage-of-revenue royalty payments like those used by satellite radio - with any revenue-less stations completely waved of fees.

Related links:
SaveNetRadio.org
Radio and Internet Newsletter
Pandora radio

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