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Filed under: Audio, Business, News

Congress extends deadline for Internet radio royalty negotiations

Royalties have been a bone of contention between major record labels and Internet radio stations for years, and now it looks like the two sides only have 30 more days to iron out an agreement. After they failed to agree by the February 2009 deadline that Congress set last year, Congress took action to extend the deadline to 30 days from last Wednesday.

Until last year, the Copyright Royalty Board had the authority to determine the rates webcasters would have to pay for songs, but a 2008 bill called for negotiation on the issue instead. What's missing from all the coverage of this extension is what happens if an agreement can't be reached by the new deadline. According to the bill -- which was passed without amendment -- after the 30 day period passes, no agreement can be reached under the existing provisions, which means the rules of the game could change again at Congress' whim.

[via AppScout]

Filed under: Audio, News, Web services

Is the webcast royalty fiasco really about mandatory DRM?


Webcasted radio has been taking it on the chin lately, with a proposal to institute insane royalty rates that would effectively spell the end of many popular broadcasters. Those royalty rates were supposed to go into effect this week, but a temporary reprieve and hopes of a new deal kept internet radio thumping along. Everyone sighed relief, but Ars Technica reports that the picture may not be so rosy after all.

SoundExhange, the royalty clearing house set up by the RIAA, has ferreted in a clause to the new agreement which would require DRM for licensed streaming audio. That means, simply put, that you won't be listening to internet radio on any platform SoundExchange doesn't like, or with any player not equipped with (and there for paying license fees to include) proprietary content protection schemes.

Pardon our language but, that just sounds yuckie.

Filed under: Audio, News

Copyright Royalty Board raises rates: internet radio stations cry foul

ShoutcastThe Copyright Royalty Board wants to more than double the amount of money internet radio stations pay to license the music they stream online over the next four years. For many webcasters, the new fees could be enough to put them out of business.

Bill and Rebecca Goldsmith, who run Radio Paradise, have started a new blog, with a detailed explanation of the impact the new rates would have on small webcasters. While both internet and traditional radio stations pay royalties to artists and songwriters, only online webcasters have to pay royalties to copyright holders. That's because Congress bought the argument that streaming audio is no different from MP3 downloads, in that both make high quality digital audio available to users who can then save copies on their computer.

Of course, you could also record broadcast radio onto a cassette or CD if you have the equipment. And while it's not that difficult to find software allowing you to save internet broadcasts, the product you wind up with typically isn't nearly as good as what you'd get from iTunes or BitTorrent. The songs run into one another; may or may not include metadata; you don't get full albums.

At the very least, internet and terrestrial broadcast radio stations should be subjected to the same fees. But the truth is that while companies like Clear Channel could easily afford the new fees, small stations like Radio Paradise cannot. And I think the world needs small non-commercial stations to broadcast music that might be hard to come by otherwise. Something copyright holders have never seemed to understand is that internet radio serves the same promotional purpose as broadcast radio. If you hear a song you like, perhaps you'll go out and buy it.

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