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A Reprieve For Net Radio?
Porsupah writes "The Register reports that "Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Rep. Don Manzullo (R-IL) have headed the 'Internet Radio Equality Act,' which aims to stop the controversial March 2 decision which puts royalty of a .08 cent per song per listener, retroactively from 2006 to 2010 on internet radio," as imposed by a recent decision from the Copyright Royalty Board. "If passed, today's bill would set new rates at 7.5 percent of the webcaster's revenue — the same rate paid by satellite radio.""
Well that's a result! Hopefully these guys will make good progress. In the end though with net radio streams getting higher and higher quality how long will it be before people use net radio as a content distribution mechanism with an excuse to get around copyright?
Demented But Determined.
How about someone who adopts a feeble DRM scheme, just as a ploy to satisfy the letter of the law? In the end, ALL DRM schemes are defeated eventually. Anyone who complains about the insufficiency of a particular webcaster's DRM could be confronted with a list of current workarounds for all of the supposedly current forms of DRM, thus illustrating the foolishness of the concept.
The new rates go into effect May 15 and are expected to instantly bankrupt most small web broadcasters (because they're retroactive to January, 2006).
In the mean time, this bill has to get out of committee, be voted on and passed by the house, get to the president's desk either on its own or tacked on to another bill, and then get signed.
That's a lot to get right fast. And the bill will no doubt face fierce lobbying opposition from the music industry suits trying to get internet radio shut down.
Props to these congressmen for setting up a bill on this, but...we're not there yet.
When little Nancy wanted a dog, she went to her father and said "daddy, I want a pony". Her father looked at Nancy and smiled and said "Nancy, horses cost a lot of money". But Nancy persisted "DADDY,I WANT A PONY". Her father frowned a bit "Nancy, besides costing so much, we'd need a stable and the horse would have to be trained and cared for".
So Nancy threw herself on the ground started crying, screaming and kicking "DADDY, I WANT A PONY. WAAAH".
In desperation, the father said "Nancy, how about a nice dog instead?".
And with that, Nancy smiled and went back to her room. She got the dog she wanted in the first place.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
This would be a wonderful change for public, non-profit, and college radio stations who broadcast on the airwaves as well as maintain a web stream. While the current web rate per song is pretty bad, it is the requirement that all songs need to be logged that is really making it difficult for these stations to keep their web streams up, since they don't often have the all-digital systems / small libraries of commercial ventures. It is almost as if the current legislation was drafted to prevent these types of stations from (legally) offering their content online.
This would blow away the reporting requirement and most of the fees for these stations. Fees could be easily calculated based on the small amount of revenue the stations generate. My only worry is that this amount might be higher than the per-song rate for commercial stations, and government loves business...
Satellite pay 7.5% of revenue as performance royalties
The CRB wanted webcasters to pay around 100-125% of revenue as performance royalties
Radio stations pay 0% as performance royalties.
--- a snip from savenetradio.org----
On March 2, 2007 the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which oversees sound recording royalties paid by Internet radio services, increased Internet radio's royalty burden between 300 and 1200 percent and thereby jeopardized the industry's future.
At the request of the Recording Industry Association of America, the CRB ignored the fact that Internet radio royalties were already double what satellite radio pays, and multiplied the royalties even further. The 2005 royalty rate was 7/100 of a penny per song streamed; the 2010 rate will be 19/100 of a penny per song streamed. And for small webcasters that were able to calculate royalties as a percentage of revenue in 2005 - that option was quashed by the CRB, so small webcasters' royalties will grow exponentially!
Before this ruling was handed down, the vast majority of webcasters were barely making ends meet as Internet radio advertising revenue is just beginning to develop. Without a doubt most Internet radio services will go bankrupt and cease webcasting if this royalty rate is not reversed by the Congress,
----- end snip-----
well, lemme give you an idea, ok ?
Say that you got a small internet radio channel that handles on average 150-200 users per hours ( approx user count for all 24 hours... peaks at 500ish, 10-15 users in the wee hours... so say, for all practical purposes you ot a constant 175 users, k?) . Because you're barely making any money off this thing ( say you're "making" $100-200ish a month after paying for equipment, band, coffee, ramen, etc etc) you had the exemption that made it you paid a fraction of your revenues to the RIAA. But hey, you're still making peanuts here, so it's all good.
Suddenly the rules change. Let's run a quick and dirty calculation on what you suddenly owe the RIAA here...
175 users * 8 songs and hour * 0.0018 $ ( that's per song streamed) = 2.52$ So that's 2 bucks fifty an hour.
multiply by 24 hours, times the number of days in a month ( say 30) and you get.... 1814,40$ that you owe to the RIAA... PER MONTH.
Can you say ouch ? for a guy that was barely making ends meet, and making just enough to take out his girlfriend to a fancy dinner once in a while ( if nothing breaks) you went down to actually owning money for running a small net radio station.
Now you understand why the "percentage of revenues" is something small webcasters want.
Peace and happyness to you, by LullySing
I run one of the more popular net electronic stations out there and I am of course glad to see this. I am also an artist and I have no problems with equality on the internet. It's clearly the way to go and I think people will becoming more creative with out to make money out of net radio. Right now I am not profitable at all. I split the cost with 3 guys and I carry most of the load of maintenance.
The whole idea of changing the rules then penalizing you from actions in the past should be banned.
How the hell are you supposed to predict when congress will get a burr up its butt add that to your future business plan so you don't get put out of business ( or goto jail )?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
You have to put in some protections, like you can't let someone choose their song 'on demand.' Which means you must limit the amount of songs a person can skip, you can't let them rewind or replay something that streamed. You also have to make a reasonable effort to prevent copying. I'm sure there are more rules those are just the ones I know off the top of my head.
Lucinda Williams *is* country, she's just not the crappy country anyone is allowed to hear on the radio.
She records on Lost Highway records, a country-music label. Headquartered in Nashville, TN.
She's what is often labeled as "alt.country", "americana" and about 100 other labels. Basically it means "country artist who doesn't play the heavily-produced pop country that everyone seem to think is country music these days".
Eric Clapton, being one of the premiere bluesmen alive, is a lot closer to real country music than Kenny Chesney too.