Internet radio stations do not have to go silent on Sunday. For a while at least internet webcasters have some breathing room.
Thanks so much everyone! Great news and Great job.
Internet radio broadcasters got an unexpected bit of good news from an unlikely source. During a Congressional roundtable initiated by Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), SoundExchange executive director Jon Simson said that the licensing group will not enforce the new royalty scheme. Instead, the rate hikes will be postponed indefinitely while SoundExchange and the webcasters attempt to hammer out a more equitable rate schedule.
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The specter of Congressional action in the form of the Internet Radio Equality Act of 2007, along with Rep. Markey's unexpected roundtable meeting, which fell under the aegis of the Small Business Subcommittee instead of the more copyright-friendly Judiciary Committee, apparently forced SoundExchange's hand.
Webcasters large and small are pleased with SoundExchange's change of heart, and
one webcaster said that the outcry from fans of Internet radio was a major factor. "This is a direct result of lobbying pressure, so if anyone thinks their call didn't matter, it did," Pandora founder Tim Westergren told Wired blog Listening Post. "That's why this is happening."
Another source told Listening Post that the meeting resulted in an agreement that the Copyright Royalty Board's excessive per-channel administrative fees would not be applied. RealNetworks had said that those fees could have cost it over $200 million annually, about 10 times the total amount collected by SoundExchange for all of Internet radio during 2006.
In the wake of the meeting, webcasters and SoundExchange will work to hammer out an equitable deal, and Internet radio broadcasters will be able to stay online while negotiations continue. Talks could still go sour and the CRB, but that would result in an open invitation for Congress to pass legislation, which SoundExchange wants to avoid.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070713-soundexchange-offers-temporary-reprieve-on-net-radio-royalty-increase.html