Kurt Hanson’s Radio And Internet Newsletter is reporting that the due date for online radio stations to pay higher royalties for streamed music has been pushed back from May 15 to July 15 by the Copyright Royalty Board. While the fate of the Internet Radio Equality Act, a law that would overturn the new royalty rates, is still up for debate, Hanson sees the push-back on the due date as a good sign for webcasters:
This is excellent news for Internet radio, as there seemed to be great support for the Internet Radio Equality Act on Capital Hill, but many staffers warned us that it seemed impossible that committee hearings could be held, and law could be passed by both houses of Congress, and the bill could be signed by the President, in time to meet a deadline that was only 14 days away.
This pushback happened shortly after the National Association of Broadcasters announced that it would be backing the Internet Radio Equality Act, and we can’t help but think that it’s a little bit more than a coincidence. (Higher streaming rates, after all, affect the big broadcasters’ online enterprises as well.) Still, perhaps sometime soon, SoundExchange executive director John Simson can get acquainted with the online radio stations that actually like the bands they’re playing, and come around to see the error of his ways.
Webcasters get breathing room; CRB pushes D-Day to July 15th! [RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter]
I saw John Simson speak on a panel today at the Future of Music Coalition’s “Technology and IP Policy Day,” and he raised an interesting point that no-one in the room could refute. 40% of the webcasters behind Savenetradio.org (the group most responsible for pushing the new IRE bill) are non-compliant in that they have never registered with the Copyright Office for use of sound recordings under the statutory license, and have never paid SoundExchange a dime for the music they built their business on.
I think that these guys, in the words of Jim Davis, should be dragged out in the street and shot. I don’t personally believe that the new rates are fair reflections of free-market value, but I also don’t believe that a webcaster who has never paid artists a CENT for using their work has ANY right to get in the ring on such a fight.
I saw John Simson speak on a panel today at the Future of Music Coalition’s “Technology and IP Policy Day,” and he raised an interesting point that no-one in the room could refute. 40% of the webcasters behind Savenetradio.org (the group most responsible for pushing the new IRE bill) are non-compliant in that they have never registered with the Copyright Office for use of sound recordings under the statutory license, and have never paid SoundExchange a dime for the music they built their business on.
I think that these guys, in the words of Jim Davis, should be dragged out in the street and shot. I don’t personally believe that the new rates are fair reflections of free-market value, but I also don’t believe that a webcaster who has never paid artists a cent for using their work has ANY right to get in the ring on such a fight.