RIP online radio?
Posted By Mike Orren in Square Pegs on March 5, 2007
Just as it sounded like the music industry was doing something that made 21st century sense, the Copyright Royalty Board announced that it is accepting an RIAA puppet group's proposal for charging online radio royalties.
The upshot? The fees, including a ridiculous $500 minimum and retroactive fees for last year, virtually ensure that independent web stations could never afford to pay the bill (see analysis), while the big broadcasters won't even notice the hit.
Our friends at Pandora? Probably toast, if you listen to the analysts. Last.fm, based overseas, is probably OK. My favorite online station, Radio Paradise is leading a fight against this ruling, but is also in big trouble if this stands.
And Mark Cuban has a poignant look back at the old days in his post railing against the decision.
Erin Rice, says:
Just got this email from Chris Nite at Studio81X:
On Friday March 2nd 2007, the Copyright Royalty Board announced new royalty rates for Internet Radio stations. The rates are retroactive to January of 2006.
The new rates are far higher than any industry experts expected. In fact, if they remain unchanged, bankruptcy looms for many online radio stations.
The new rates essentially levy a tax of $0.0011 per performance. Now,that doesn't sound bad does it. But consider this. Each hour, the average radio station plays 16 songs. So that's about 1.76c per hour, per listener. A station with 500 listener average would be hit with fees of $211 per day, $6,336 a month or $76,000 a year.
This amount of money is beyond the resources of all but the very wealthiest of corporations. Many of the internet radio stations are run by enthusiasts and hobbyists. These small stations are the ones bringing new music, and old favorites to you every day. Music you can't hear on corporate-owned terrestrial stations.
Could this be the day the music died? What can you do????
If you enjoy internet radio, you need to make your feelings known right now to your representatives in the Congress and Senate. Write to them and ask them to help repeal the decision of March 2nd by the Copyright Royalty Board. It only takes a couple of minutes.
Congress: http://www.house.gov/writerep/ Senate: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact...
More background on this decision
http://www.digmedia.org/docs/Press%20... http://www.digmedia.org/docs/CRB%20Ar...
http://www.kurthanson.com/archive/new... http://www.savenetradio.org/archive.htm
Broadcasters Go Here and join the cause http://webcastersunite.net There are lots more downloads We support royalty payments to compensate artists for their works. We do not support being forced to pay twice as much as any other form of media.
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Mike Orren, says:
Congress to the rescue?: http://money.cnn.com/2007/04/30/techn...
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