Billions in new fees for webcasters?
p2pnet.net news:- Webcasters ranging from small college stations to major stations say they’re in mortal danger following a Copyright Royalty Board decision to boost royalty rates, slated to go into effect on July 15.
But things could be worse, billions of dollars per year worse, say RealNetworks, Yahoo, Pandora and Live365
The companies say the music industry will also be demanding $1 billion annually from Yahoo, RealNetworks and Pandora alone, “in the name of covering so-called administrative costs,” says CNET News.
When the CRB decided to change the rules for broadcasters, it also announced a $500 minimum annual fee per Net radio channel SoundExchange ( the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America spin-off used to collect royalties “and other fees” for the major record labels), says the story, going on:
“But since some of the larger Internet radio services potentially offer their listeners hundreds of thousands of unique ‘channels’ (RealNetworks’ Rhapsody offered more than 400,000 in 2006 alone, according to a company spokesman), the companies view the ruling as forcing them to multiply that mandatory minimum payment accordingly (for Real, that would amount to $200 million).
“Such an amount would far outpace the $20 million in total royalty fees collected by SoundExchange from the Internet radio industry last year, the CEOs note in their letter. And besides, it’s not even clear that those payments would go to artists, as royalty payments do, the companies argue.”
SoundExchange hasn’t so far commented, says the story.
Meanwhile, “Royalty rates for webcasters have been drastically increased by a recent ruling and are due to go into effect on July 15 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!),” says SaveNetRadio. “If the increased rates remain unchanged, the majority of webcasters will go bankrupt and silent on this date.”
Also See:
mortal danger – SoundExchange backs down, May 23, 2007
July 15 – Critical online radio battle, May 14, 2007
CNET News – Major Webcasters to face billions in new fees?, June 7, 2007
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