Court won't block Net music fee hike

sharply higher royalites for internet music broadcasters

[Robert Charlton]

Boston Globe Article [boston.com]

Court won't block Net music fee hike
By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff ¦ July 13, 2007

Internet music broadcasters will have to start paying sharply higher royalties next week, after a federal appeals court yesterday refused to halt the royalty increase.

In March, a three-judge panel created by Congress to set digital music royalty rates decided on a big increase, retroactive to 2006 and extending through 2010. Broadcasters will have to pay 5 percent more in music royalties for this year and last. Then they'll face additional royalty hikes of more than 20 percent per year for the next three years.

I get a lot of my music over the web... material that's not mainstream and doesn't have a large listener base. IMO, this decision is a bummer... and a big obstacle to content diversity.

[vincevincevince]

I bet that hosting over at sealand [en.wikipedia.org] sounds a lot more attractive right now! It's clear to me that pirate internet radio is the predictable result of all this and that will leave the record companies with nothing.

At least traditional pirate radio stations bought the records they played... this new breed are just going to download them from p2p :S

[Robert Charlton]

From SiliconValley.com's Good Morning Silicon Valley [svextra.com]...

Net radio’s executioner halts ax in midair
July 13, 2007

....Late Thursday, a reprieve came from the only entity able to offer one — SoundExchange. The licensing body said it would not begin collecting the new fees Sunday and would hold off while negotiations continue. Wired reports that the talks have already cleared one contentious issue off the table, at least for now — the minimum charge of $6,000 per channel required under a scheme created by the Copyright Royalty Board. With the large webcasters streaming thousands of personalized "channels," the fee would cost them millions....