Proposed Online-Radio Royalty Rates Are Making The Streamers Very Cross
Those of you alarmed by the possibility that your favorite online radio station may be priced out of existence should head over to Save the Streams, which is planning on becoming a one-stop resource for information on the royalty rates for online radio that were announced by the Copyright Royalty Board late last week. The FAQ, in particular, is very helpful as far as figuring out the math for these ridiculous new rates, and reminding listeners that these rates affect all music that’s under copyright, even if it’s from a tiny cassette-only label out of Denmark.
(And to show just how astronomical these new prices are, here’s a statistic that we found on the Wired blog Listening Post: “The provisions of the Copyright Act and Friday’s royalty rate increases by the Copyright Royalty Board ask for only 7% of Sirius/XM’s revenue, yet demand more than 100% of webcaster revenue.” Now, obviously, smaller online broadcasters have lower revenues–if they have revenues at all–but still, something seems seriously amiss with that number.)
Save the Streams [savethestreams.org, via Hypebot] Earlier: Internet Radio Just Got More Expensive
