This Is Still A Serious And Unresolved Issue!
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Satellite Radio Pays: 7.5%
Over-Air Radio Pays: Nothing !
Web Radio Must Pay: 70% to 300%
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What's So Fair
About That ??
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RIAA and SoundExchange (lobbyist/collection entities of large American record labels) want to kill web radio as we know it. To bring order and control back to their outdated marketing models, they have convinced the Bush appointed 'Copyright Royalty Board' (CRB) to inflict arbitrary music licensing fee increases of up to 1200 percent that are designed specifically to kill an open web radio market. Those rate hikes took 'retroactive' effect on July 15, 2007, and webcasters are fighting for dear life to reverse these increases via passage of The Internet Radio Equality Act. Please help us by doing at least 2 of the following:
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UPDATES:
(October 30, 2008)
Canadian Copyright Board Announces Decision on Internet Royalties:
In an article by Broadcaster Magazine Online, the Copyright Board of Canada issued a decision dealing with the communication of musical works on the Internet. The royalties extend retroactively for the period of 1996 to 2006, and the Board will review rates going forward from 2007 in the near future. (Click For Broadcaster Magazine Article)
(Click for Additional Info By RAIN)
(October 21, 2008)
"Webcasters No Match For Record Industry In Arbitration" says Gary Greenstein
Former RIAA attorney, Gary Greenstein, says that powerful record labels and SoundExchange outspent and out-strategized webcasters in rate-setting arbitration proceedings. The result, of course, was the disproportionately high webcast royalty rate.
(Read Full Article by Paul Maloney/RAIN)
(October 1, 2008)
"Senate Passes Webcaster Settlement Act- Goes To Bush" says Kurt Hanson
RAIN has learned that legislation authorizing SoundExchange to negotiate royalty agreements with webcasters on behalf of copyright owners and performers through February 15th has been approved by the U.S. Senate. The bill now awaits signing by President Bush to make it law. SaveNetRadio stated; "Today's approval of the Webcaster Settlement Act has cleared the way for private negotiations that hopefully will confirm Internet radio's future." (Read Full Article by Kurt Hanson/RAIN)
(Septemebr 30, 2008)
P2P Net News: "SoundExchange Keeps Artist's Performance Money"
(Original Article Date: April 28, 2008)
SoundExchange (SX) has been publicly accused of withholding artist compensation by several music license reporting entities. SX has made statements that there are difficulties in locating artists that are owed money, in some cases to major acts. This has been scoffed at by industry watchdogs as laughable, as outlined in this P2P Net News article published on April 28, 2008.
(P2P Net News Says SX Keeps Artist's Money)
Click Here For Previous Updates
ARTICLES:
Peter Kafka: "Licensing Deal Close, But Pandora Not Out Of Woods" (11/06/08)
Hanson/RAIN: "How To Tell The Royalty Dispute Players" (10/28/08)
PC Mag: "Music-Download Royalty Rates Left Unchanged" (10/02/08)
TechDirt.com: "Independent Record Labels Missing From MySpace Music" (9/26/08)
Motley Fool To Investors: "Stay Away From 'Loser' Music Industry" (8/27/08)
Click Here For Previous Articles
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Please Read The Facts:
The real enemy to labels are 'P2P NETWORKS', not web radio. Web radio has nothing to do with illegal file-swapping, and are licensed operators. There are some people who 'stream-rip', but anybody can easily rip 'any' over-air or satellite station. P2P networks are the real threat, but this technology is now embedded within every proxy server throughout the entire internet infrastructure. There is no remedy for major labels, except to create a new social movement where people purposefully pay for music they acquire (and the vast majority still do).
These new rate hikes have 'NOTHING TO DO WITH WRITERS' of music. Web radio stations already pay separate publishing royalties for writers, and have done so from the beginning. These new rates are for the 'Performance Rights', the license rights to play individual sound recordings of any given song. These are the primary rights that artists actually 'give or sell' to a label in return for financial support.
These new rates are 'NOT PERCENTAGES' of station's revenues, but 'FIXED RATES'. No matter how much money we make (or lose), they get their fixed rate. BUT, more than that, they are now being fixed at 300 to 1200 percent more than 2005 rates, and that will be MULTIPLIED BY 'EVERY SINGLE LISTENER'.
These new rate hikes are 'RETRO-ACTIVE' through January of 2006, and many stations that paid the 2005 rates through 2006 will immediately 'OWE' hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions, of dollars to SoundExchange, the royalty collection entity owned by the big 5 record labels. This will effectively 'KILL' many mid-size and larger stations, and may make future operations too expensive for smaller stations like this one.
These new rate hikes 'APPLY ONLY TO WEB RADIO'. With $20 Billion in annual revenues, over-the-air broadcast stations 'PAY NO PERFORMANCE RIGHTS FEES AT ALL'. Satellite radio only pays 7.5 percent of revenues for performance rights fees. But, with total annual gross revenues of only $500 million, web radio is forced to pay in excess of $2.1 Billion a year to SoundExchange. The lack of fairness is absurd, suspect, and dangerous.
Please Help Us Get "The Internet Radio Equality Act" Passed Now!
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