Death To Internet Radio? » Brats & Beer

March 8, 2007
posted under: internet radio

The Badgers are getting ready to tip off in the Big 10 tournament tomorrow, but for a I thought I’d go off topic here to rant about something I read recently.

Earlier this week some office in the federal bureaucracy called the Copyright Royalty Board decided to basically double the amount of royalties that Internet radio broadcasters have to pay to the record companies. This ruling is basically going to kill Webcasting, especially non-commercial broadcasts.

The past few weeks I’ve really gotten into the Secret Agent channel on Soma FM, one of the bigger and better non-commercial Webcasters. Since they are totally commercial free, Soma FM relies on public donations to stay in business, and I’m totally down with that idea. But under this new ruling, which will be retroactive, their annual royalty payments will skyrocket from about $22,000 to $600,000 for all of last year. For 2007 they might have to pay something like $1 million in royalties.

Even for Webcasters who are running commercials, this increase is basically going to put a lot of stations out of business. This ruling is so ludicrous, even BusinessWeek and Forbes were stunned. I just don’t get why the government is trying to squelch a new industry just as is its starting to gain some traction with a mass audience. And how blind are these record companies? Something, even if it’s only a little, is better than nothing, but that’s exactly what they are going to end up with if this ruling goes into effect.

Anyway, if you’re a fan of online radio, commercial or commercial free, I suppose you can write your Congressman or something, though I seriously don’t know how much good it’ll do. I hope some of these outfits find a way to stay on the air; maybe by moving to another country where the RIAA can’t get at them.