Bob Baker's Indie Music Promotion Blog

News, notes and ideas on music marketing, self-promotion, artist empowerment and more

June 27, 2007

Internet Radio Day of Silence

In case you aren't already aware, today is a "Day of Silence" for many Internet music radio stations. The voluntary muting is to protest a recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board to substantially raise the royalty rates paid by online music broadcasters, effective July 15.
Here's an article from Slashdot.org that explains more:

Thousands of U.S. webcasters plan to turn off the music and go silent this Tuesday, June 26th, to draw attention to an impending royalty rate increase that, if implemented, would lead to the virtual shutdown of this country's Internet radio industry. In March, the Copyright Royalty Board announced that it would raise royalties for Internet broadcasters, moving them from a per-song rate to a per-listener rate. The increase would be made retroactive to the beginning of 2006 and would double over the next five years. Internet radio sites would be charged per performance of a song. A "performance" is defined as the streaming of one song to one listener; thus a station that has an average audience of 500 listeners racks up 500 "performances" for each song it plays.

SaveNetRadio.org is a coalition of artists, labels, listeners, and webcasters determined to persuade Congress to lower the rates before the July 15 enactment date. Visit the site to learn more about this important issue and to find out how you can help. Also, check out the many news stories being published on the subject.

This is a complicated issue, one I'm still trying to wrap my head around and comprehend. What isn't clear to me yet is how this would effect online broadcasters that play indie artists who give permission to play their songs without royalty compensation (via the Podsafe Music Network, for instance).

I'll do a little more digging. If you know something about this aspect, please leave a comment.

-Bob

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posted by Bob Baker @ 10:10 AM   1 comments

1 Comments:

At Jun 28, 2007 8:10:00 AM, Anonymous Rikki said...

thx for the tips!

 

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