SoundExchange settlement for small webcasters
p2pnet news view | Radio:- Obviously overtaxed by actually talking to the NAB, SoundExchange fell back on its favored tactic of negotiating by press release last week by promoting a “settlement” with small webcasters that would extend the current rates (in effect since 2002), out through 2015, with just a couple of “minor” conditions attached.
The settlement came as a surprise to those negotiating on behalf of small webcasters as it appeared that SoundExchange had never really put this “settlement” to them before announcing it.
The intention of this grandstanding was transparent. The negotiation window granted to SoundExchange and webcasters by Congress last fall in the Small Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008 expired on February 15, and SoundExchange’s announcement was a rather naked play to its friends in Congress of how seriously it was negotiating. (Recent reports say the negotiations are continuing past the deadline.)
The real audience for the announcement wasn’t the webcasters, or even the public, it was the 535 members of Congress upon whom SoundExchange’s RIAA masters depend on for protection in these troubled economic times.
Underscoring the worthlessness of the “settlement” were two conditions attached to a webcaster’s acceptance of the terms.
- First, if a webcaster accepts the terms and later sells the webcast, the new owner has to pay the higher royalty rates, retroactive to 2006.
- Second, anyone accepting the terms also has to agree not to participate in the next round of CRB royalty hearings covering the years 2011-2015.
The last time that SoundExchange announced a unilateral settlement with small webcasters, they predicted that thousands of those webcasters would agree to the offered terms.
That announcement, strictly by coincidence, happened the same day that there were House hearings on webcasting royalties. About 25 small webcasters did sign up in the first week, and, as far as anyone knows, nobody has joined them.
SoundExchange, which has been known to issue a self-congratulatory press release when they open a new box of paperclips, has been oddly silent about those webcasters rushing to accep the new terms.
Fred Wilhelms – p2pnet
[If the corporate music industry had any ethics, Wilhelms would be its `ethicist-in-chief,` wrote CounterPunch`s Dave Marsh. Wilhelms is an entertainment attorney based in Nashville, Tennessee. You can contact him at fred.wilhelms @ gmail dot com. ]
February , 2009
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February 24th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
To my understanding Real Networks Killed this settlement.Maybe that’s the reason Sound Exchange is silent (pure speclation on my part)
I am a “Micro Webcaster”as Sound Exchange likes to call us,I was pleased with the 500 dollar a year settlement for people like me that run a web radio station as a hobby and carries a core group of listeners.But I’m not sure where all that stands at this point.
February 24th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
The microcaster provision was honestly a nice addition, w/ their offer to forgo the recordkeeping for a little bit of money. But if you run the numbers on the ATH max that they provide as the “cap” to fall into the ‘microcaster’ category, it **literally means you can’t have one connected, 24/7 listener**. You have to have 0 listeners for part of the day to even qualify to *be* a microcaster.
So while it’s nice to see a concession like that make an appearance, it was a pointless, crippled offer — one of their patented SoundExchange “Non-Offer Offers”(tm) …
February 24th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Sounds like another crappy offer to me! Basically takes away an operators right to any futire or the ability to expand! What kind of dictator ship is this ?