US WebCasters Hit With Back-Dated Charges

[GhostShip]

It Seems that unlike radio stations that get music for nothing if your a web caster you have to pay for the audience to listen you, and they will no doubt pay for the music the webcaster has allowed them to sample. Are we seeing the tip of corporate greed ?

http://www.dailytech.com/Article.aspx?newsid=6361

The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) thoroughly rejected arguments made by the International Webcasting Association that music broadcast online should remain royalty-free. Instead, the CRB sided with the SoundExchange royalty organization.

Webcasters are now faced with new and increased royalty rates for songs that are streamed to listeners. Additionally, webcasters are forced to retroactively pay for songs that were streamed before the new law was even introduced.

The SoundExchange royalty program was only accepted by the CRB this month, the royalty program applies to webcasts in 2006 as well.  According to the royalty rates published by the Radio and Internet Newsletter, RAIN, fees are applied on a per song, per listener basis:

2006: $0.0008 per performance
2007: $0.0011 per performance
2008: $0.0014 per performance
2009: $0.0018 per performance
2010: $0.0019 per performance
Each performance is defined as a session between the radio channel and user.

The rates applied by the SoundExchange program also increase as each year rolls by, adding costs to webcasters very quickly. According to RAIN, the average station plays 16 songs per hour, which would add up to $1.28 per hour, per 100 listeners for 2006.

Additionally, there is a minimum fee of $500 per channel per year, though the CRB has not clearly defined "channel" yet.  The rate implementation still can be appealed by organizations like the International Webcasting Association within 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register.

I believe as long as the whole work is not played at a bit rate faster than 64k it should be free of all charges, unfortunately the audio experts atthe RIAA cant tell the difference between radio quality and a CD ( or at least thats what they tell congressional committee's and the FCC).

[Scyre]

They are not gonna be satisfied until everyone switches to independant artists, free music, and they have starved themselves to death.

This is just completely absurd. When everyone has gotten tired of the music nazi patrol, no one is gonna support them anymore. Really, who would want to keep pumping money into ever shrinking rights? Just to be able to say "We pay to be 'cool' and have the newest crap by the cartel..."   ?

We are living in a time of a music revolution, and the people are gonna give them what they deserve: Nothing.

Best Regards, and Be Good!
Scyre