This Is Not Right

On March 2, 2007 the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which oversees
sound recording royalties paid by Internet radio services, increased
Internet radio’s royalty burden between 300 and 1200 percent and
thereby jeopardized the industry’s future.  I posted my thoughts on the increase at that time. 

The CRB
ignored the fact that Internet radio royalties were already double what
satellite radio pays, and multiplied the royalties even further.  The
2005 royalty rate was 7/100 of a penny per song streamed; the 2010 rate
will be 19/100 of a penny per song streamed. 

By what logic should a webcaster pay double or triple what satellite or terrestrial radio pays? This is nuts. I love Internet radio. I listen all the time. We’ve done a lot of work on monetizing streaming audio in the past six months and I believe that there’s a good business in Internet Radio, but not at these rates.

But to me the fundamental issue is that our government is giving "over the air" and satellite broadcasters an unfair advantage over internet broadcasters. That is not right.

I’ve joined the Save Net Radio coalition and sent my congressional representative a piece of my mind. I’ve added their badge to my house ads on the right hand side of this blog. I’ll glady do more if anyone has any good ideas. I’m pissed about this.