Ok, maybe it's not that serious, but a majority of Internet Radio companies stand to go out of business next month because of a decision by the Copyright Royalty Board to uphold their previous ruling to increase royalties paid by Internet radio companies. The new rates go into effect on May 15, 2007, but are retroactive to June 1, 2006 which means that many companies will get a bill which far exceeds their revenues. Before this, these companies paid a percentage of revenue to stream music, new requirements are much more stringent and (retroactively) "break" the revenue model which these companies currently use. At this point, the last appeal is to the Congress of the United States as this is one of their constitutionally "enumerated powers" (see Article 1, Section 8).
It appears that Reps. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) and Don Manzullo (R-Ill.), have proposed legislation which would limit royalties to 7.5% of revenue, which according to Inslee's office is similar to what satellite radio pays. That seems fair. To stay updated, see the Web site, http://savenetradio.org.
Stay tuned (as long as you can)...
Comments (1)
It looks like CRB has given Internet Radio a two month reprieve while Congress has a chance to act. July 15, 2007 is the new date.
Posted by Jim Leous | May 10, 2007 11:40 PM
Posted on May 10, 2007 23:40