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Filed under: Audio, Internet

Court rejects webcasters request for rate hike delay

PandoraLawmakers have gotten involved, webcasters held a day of silence protest, and SoundExchange has agreed to reduce its fees (although that offer was rejected). But the big day is still just around the corner. On Sunday, the U.S. will levy new royalty rates on internet broadcasters. In some cases, those rates could be high enough to seriously threaten the existence of smaller stations and web sites.

A coalition of webcasters had sought another delay in the implementation of the new rates until some sort of a solution could be found. But a federal appeals court ruled that the group had not met the standards necessary to grant a stay.

In other words, there's a very good chance that sites like Pandora, Last.fm, Yahoo! LAUNCHcast and others could go off the air next week until some sort of an agreement is reached with the music industry.

The Save Net Radio coalition is urging supporters to call members of Congress in support of the Internet Radio Equality Act. But we're rather curious to see if the standoff could lead to a backlash against the record labels. After all, much like traditional radio, internet broadcasts serve to promote new music and songs. If fewer people are exposed to new artists, will record sales take a hit?

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