RSSInternet Radio Back Royalties Postponed
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published May 2, 2007, 6:27 PM
An attorney representing Internet radio interests reports that the due date for 2006 performance royalties has officially been moved back to July 15 from May 15, due to a technicality created by an alteration in the ruling of the US Copyright Royalty Board.
That alteration, which rolls back the rate of 2006 back royalty fees to become more commensurate with what satellite radio pays to the SoundExchange organization for performance royalties, apparently gives streaming music providers a 45-day window from yesterday to file a formal appeal, according to attorney David Oxenford. Online providers have already indicated their willingness to do so.
As promised, the CRB formally published its royalty fee structure for online streaming music providers yesterday. The new structure would raise per-performance royalties for regular music providers (as opposed to talk radio services that use music only in the background) to $0.0019 per song per listener by 2010. With the industry's projected rate of growth, BetaNews projects the new fees would convert performance royalty collections in the US to a $2 billion + per year industry, unless a bill introduced last week overturns the CRB's decision and sets royalty fees to a rate roughly equivalent to what satellite radio providers currently pay.
Even if the bill does pass, however, those back royalties for 2006 - the collection of which was on hold while the CRB debated the new royalties scheme - may still come due at mid-July.
The problem is that politicians don't see this whole issue as "important" enough to take action. All we'll get is lip service. They focus on issues which get media coverage, which makes sense, but at the cost of lesser priority issues. We're heading into a world where you have to pay to get something done, even when it comes to getting laws passed or repealed. Votes don't matter anymore.
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|Is that why I can't listen anymore to KFI AM web stream, a Clear Channel Network station? By the way it says that because I'm Canadian?
"Licensed Content Access Request
Your IP Address: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Due to licensing restrictions, we are not able to allow access to the content you are requesting from outside the United States. We are sorry we can no longer provide access to Canada. If you currently reside in the United States, please select one of the options below to process your request. Please allow up to 60 hours to process your request."
I've been listening to a program for years now and now I can't? At least I did find other AM stations that do stream the same program but I'm wondering for how long. Talk about killing a market and shooting themselves in the foot while it's in their mouth. Bunch of morons.
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|Thanks for the info, Hal9000. I've included it in today's story on international listening restrictions, and as you can see, you're now famous.
-SF3
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|I'd like to know how they justify these criminally high royalties for net radio as opposed to satellite. Its the same content, and if you listen to the medium bitrate streams its virtually the same quality. Its also a pretty safe bet that the majority of satellite radio channels have more listeners than their internet counterparts, so why is the smaller player getting slammed? And what about XM's netcasts? Will they be soaked like everybody else, merely be double-billed, or do they get a total pass? Whats the argument, USCRB?? And how can any court allow you to make this robbery retroactive? One thing is certain: this deal is so dirty you'd need Mr. Clean and an army of Scrubbing Bubbles to find out the truth. Lets just hope that justice and clear thinking prevail for a change.
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|I asked a similar question on another article. I live in Los Angeles and we have a few radio stations that also have net streams, will they have to pay double? If so net streams are going to just stop all over. There is net radio gadget coming out that will let you wirelessly play internet radio channels on the run, this will never make it. Innovation is going to be stopped because greedy people want to make more money. The good thing about internet radio is that its cheap so anyone with a computer and the software can make they're own webcast, this will also go. Its just really sad.
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