New Royalty Rates Threaten to Kill Internet Radio

This excerpt was Taken from RAIN a popular news blog. http://www.kurthanson.com/archive/news/030207/index.shtml
WEBCAST ROYALTY DECISION ANNOUNCED
BY DANIEL MCSWAIN
The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has announced its decision on Internet radio royalty rates, rejecting all of the arguments made by Webcasters and instead adopting the "per play" rate proposal put forth by SoundExchange(a digital music fee collection body created by the RIAA).




RAIN has learned the rates that the Board has decided on, effective retroactively through the beginning of 2006. They are as follows:
2006
$.0008 per performance
2007
$.0011 per performance
2008
$.0014 per performance
2009
$.0018 per performance
2010
$.0019 per performance

A "performance" is defined as the streaming of one song to one listener; thus a station that has an average audience of 500 listeners racks up 500 "performances" for each song it plays.

The minimum fee is $500 per channel per year. There is no clear definition of what a 'channel' is for services that make up individualized playlists for listeners. For noncommercial webcasters, the fee will be $500 per channel, for up to 159,140 ATH (aggregate tuning hours) per month. They would pay the commercial rate for all transmissions above that number.

Participants are granted a 15 day period wherein they have the opportunity to ask the CRB for a re-hearing.

Within 60 days of the final determination, the decision is supposed to be published in the Federal Register, along with any technical corrections that the Board may wish to make.

Within 30 days of publication in the Federal Register, it can be appealed (but only by the participants) to the U.S. Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia. ...
...
Because a typical Internet radio station plays about 16 songs an hour, that's a royalty obligation in 2006 of about 1.28 cents per listener-hour.

In 2006, a well-run Internet radio station might have been able to sell two radio spots an hour at a $3 net CPM (cost-per-thousand), which would add up to .6 cents per listener-hour.

Even adding in ancillary revenues from occasional video gateway ads, banner ads on the website, and so forth, total revenues per listener-hour would only be in the 1.0 to 1.2 cents per listener-hour range.

That math suggests that the royalty rate decision — for the performance alone, not even including composers' royalties! — is in the in the ballpark of 100% or more of total revenues.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Internet
• Radio
• Webcasters
• United
• Webcasts
• music
• RIAA
• podcasts

[CanadaIndieFilm]

I think it's a good idea for radio stations on the internet to REFUSE to play anything but independently produced music. Give the RIAA more of what they want even before they know they want it.

[MichaelIanHenry]

I wonder how this might effect Internet talk radio...if any? Anyone have an idea?

[bryngOneOn]

please some one who knows answer a question for me which despite 15 minute hunt on web has left me even more bemused, the quest is... does radio one in the uk have to pay royalties if they play a song and more importantly if say you are an artist in the charts with a hit record how much EXACTLY does the radio station have to pay? i would have thought the label would of had to pay the station to play a track as its advertising their product, anyway if u know please tell me how much radio has to?

[DJBrokenHigh]

Fuck the RIAA & fuck US Congress for supporting them!

[DigitalAddiction]

I'm with you. Save Internet Radio. However, not all but most music released these lately isn't that great. So, more and more artist are supporting releasing music under the Creative Commons License which allows everyone to use the material for non-commercial use, which helps. I also operate a internet stream. unfortunitly it's all royalty free/unpublished material. Heh. and to think it all started with Metallica and Napster. Open Source is the way to go sometimes. ;]

[BigBoss023]

And I absolutely HATE anything related with Clear Channel, they suck balls!

[gtasahomo]

Wow, the RIAA shoots itself in the foot again.

[BigBoss023]

We have to, we absolutely MUST SAVE Internet Radio, and NOT let it die, and have the recording industry have it's way! There's only 10 days left until the dreaded deadline, so call you're Senators and Representatives RIGHT NOW, and ask them to co-sponsor the Internet Radio Equality Act, S 1353 in the Senate, and HR 2060 in the House!!

[pig322]

All this will do is crush programing diversity and lead to Clear Channel style mass marketing mediocracy.

[artmaven]

Save Internet Radio

Royalty rates for webcasters are due to go into effect on [new date] July 15. If increased rates remain unchanged, the majority of webcasters will go bankrupt and silent on this date

CALL YOUR SENATORS AND YOUR REPRESENTATIVE NOW TO ASK THEM TO CO-SPONSOR THE INTERNET RADIO EQUALITY ACT, S 1353 IN THE SENATE AND HR 2060 IN THE HOUSE

Find phone numbers for your representatives: dubdubdub3.capwiz[dot]com/save­internetradio/issues/alert/?al­ertid=9738601