AfterDawn: News

US Copyright Royalty Board rubber stamps recording industry proposed rates

On Friday, March 2, the US Copyright Royalty Board announced new royalty rates for webcasters. Under the new rates, originally proposed by SoundExchange - a former division of the RIAA, webcasters will be required to pay $0.0011 per listener, per song this year. The rates will be retroactive, meaning webcasters will also be responsible for paying the new 2006 rate of $0.0008 for webcasts from last year.

The rate proposal was accepted over the objections of the International Webcasting Association and individual webcasters. They have the right to appeal for a re-hearing within 15 days of the decision.



According to Kurt Hanson, a webcasting industry analyst for the web publication RAIN, the cost to webcasters "for the performance alone, not even including composers' royalties! - is in the in the ballpark of 100% or more of total revenues." Hanson's analysis can be found on the RAIN website.

Sources:
Wired
RAIN

Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 5 Mar 2007 0:39

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• 18 comments

• Attin

  Useless... How the hell do they think that poor webcasters are gonna pay this shit!
  
  How many webcasters have commercials on their channels ?
  If they dont have commerciels -> their out of business!
  
  oh and by the way... the cost goes up every year.
  In the year 2010 the payment will be $0.0018, that makes no sense!
  
  Fight for your rights people!, Or theyl just make you pay more!

  5.3.2007 03:14 #1

• Mr-Movies

  How do they get away with this crap, rhetorical question that's right our government is corrupt and greedy bas_*rds, sorry I keep forgetting that. :D
  
  While their at it I'd like 1 cent for every broadcast as well, I deserve it as much as they do! (NOT)
  
  I also like the fact that they only give 15 days for an appeal when it probably takes them a year just to get to this decision, what a scam that is tell me they aren’t making it difficult to appeal.

  5.3.2007 07:33 #2

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by Mr-Movies:How do they get away with this crap, rhetorical question that's right our government is corrupt and greedy bas_*rds, sorry I keep forgetting that. :D
  
  While their at it I'd like 1 cent for every broadcast as well, I deserve it as much as they do! (NOT)
  
  I also like the fact that they only give 15 days for an appeal when it probably takes them a year just to get to this decision, what a scam that is tell me they aren’t making it difficult to appeal.
  well they can start a appeal in 15 days the appeal judge will take it from there.

  5.3.2007 10:36 #3

• skeil909

  Most everything in our society tends to go up each year, but I think it's worse to make such a fee retroactive from January 1st, 2006.

  5.3.2007 11:10 #4

• SProdigy

  The royalties are insane. The RIAA is shooting itself in the foot. They are way too greedy. You see what happens to businesses as they become greedy. Look at Major League Baseball from the early 90's strike or recently the NHL. Look at Sony. People won't be able to enjoy their favorite internet radio. Webcasting will in fact die. This was put in place to protect the larger interests, in this case, terrestrial broadcasters who have not been able to penetrate the internet. Same thing goes with the Internet Gambling Act; it's made to protect the brick and mortar casinos throughout the USA. In my home state of Ohio, they've outlawed smoking in ANY public place. Don't get me started on the cost of health care.
  
  Government is getting way out of hand with these things. They cater to these people. Look at gasoline prices, going nowhere but up, even though oil prices are dropping. Joe Consumer's wages aren't rising very quickly. People are going to catch on and there will be riots over all this. We keep sending people to die in Iraq, not to protect our freedom, but to protect Corporate Greed... I'm all about big business and making money, but everything is getting way out of hand!

  5.3.2007 11:12 #5

• skeil909

  Originally posted by SProdigy:Don't get me started on the cost of health care.Originally posted by SProdigy:Joe Consumer's wages aren't rising very quickly.Sorry to get you started on health care and to go off-topic, but... :(
  
  My wages go up on average about 2 - 4% each year. But my health care premiums go up on average of 6 - 8% each year as does auto insurance. I am confused as to how the government cosiders this a raise in wages. I see it as losing more and more each year. At this rate I will be earning minimum wage in no time.

  5.3.2007 11:20 #6

• ZippyDSM

  Quote:[quote=SProdigy]Don't get me started on the cost of health care.
  
  [quote=SProdigy]Joe Consumer's wages aren't rising very quickly.
  
  Sorry to get you started on health care and to go off-topic, but... :(
  
  My wages go up on average about 2 - 4% each year. But my health care premiums go up on average of 6 - 8% each year as does auto insurance. I am confused as to how the government cosiders this a raise in wages. I see it as losing more and more each year. At this rate I will be earning minimum wage in no time.Because there is little regulation in goverment and corporations anymore, as if corporation are not bad enough already but the insurance industry is totally fcked up try paying a grand into it to find out that they reuse to cover ANYTHING and lose your house over it...them and the monopoly the pharmaceuticals have need to be broken...

  5.3.2007 11:39 #7

• georgeluv

  holy shit 1 hundreth of a penny per person to be able to broadcast a song you had no hand in making, SO CRUEL! only 13 bucks an hour if you have a thousand listeners and play 12 songs.

  5.3.2007 11:59 #8

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by georgeluv:holy shit 1 hundreth of a penny per person to be able to broadcast a song you had no hand in making, SO CRUEL! only 13 bucks an hour if you have a thousand listeners and play 12 songs.for whos songs what if you play non RIAA/CP/IP songs?
  and ADs normally cover bandwidth barely...

  5.3.2007 12:06 #9

• Blackjax

  If you look at the picture i wonder why they have their hands raised? Maybe taking an oath to squash any competition by any and all means possible?! Or maybe it's all hail big business!

  6.3.2007 19:26 #10

• psmith

  It might be "only a hundredth of a penny per person per song" - but FM broadcasters don't have to pay it at all.
  
  It may only be "13 bucks" an hour if you have 1000 listeners, but exactly how do you earn that much? Advertisements to 1000 listeners won't generate 13 bucks an hour.
  
  You'd have to charge a subscription - $2.50 per listener per month would cover the performance royalties if you limited each listener to 6 hours a day (if they are allowed 24 hour access, it would be $10 per listener per month). But, that ONLY covers performance royalties. You also need to pay composer royalties, and salaries, purchase bandwidth, music, hardware etc. At the end of the day, you're charging $20-ish per listener per month. Exactly who is going to pay this type of subscription for radio... Who is going to pay for all the people who are 'trying out' the radio station? and so on.
  
  
  Alternatively, Internet radio stations could move out of the US to a country with less influence from the RIAA and carry on as they are now, either by donation or advertisement revenues. The RIAA would get less than they do now, and the US government would lose out on taxes as well.

  7.3.2007 02:43 #11

• wetsparks

  /puke

  8.3.2007 22:03 #12

• editmon

  Regarding the photo that goes with this story. I think I have seen that hand salute before. Possibly sometime during World War II. Funny how history repeats itself.

  9.3.2007 08:40 #13

• frankacne

  The Recording companies dont give a damn about Webcasting or streaming radio. In fact they want it closed down as soon as possible to stop anyone making illegal recordings of thier music. This is a perfect way of doing it. Only the big guys like Clear Channel who play the same twenty songs in rotation from coast to coast can afford to pay these rates and probably even have special deals which get round it. Small, independent, specialist and not for profit operations will go to the wall. The only way to curb the power of these bastards is via the ballot box and by boycotting purchases even more than we are doing already. These methods worked in bringing an end to Apartheid, so maybe they will work on Warners, Sony BMG, EMI et al. If we do nothing it will be several more nails in the coffin for creativity by a notorious pack of parasites and vampires.

  9.3.2007 14:44 #14

• newageguy

  A Webcaster collective is now gearing up to form a national trade association in response to this latest miscarriage of justice. There are several strong voices behind the cause already.
  
  Small Webcaster Community Initiative
  
  Now that Congress is more aware of what's at stake, the possibility of a settlement agreement like what happened in 2002 may still be possible yet.

  10.3.2007 21:23 #15

• Mez

  This is just the tip of the iceburg, business as usual. With out research I can tell you the RIAA contributes the leagle maximum to the re-election campain funds of each member of the ways and means committee for the patent office. This is the way the US runs. The blow hards talk about improving education then vote 99% to 1% to double the yearly green cards for educated aliens. Who needs an education, it will not buy you much. Big business does what ever it want to do to the public. The only thing we can do is vote out incumbents unless they have done a great job.

  16.3.2007 05:06 #16