Licensing Problem Silences Internet Radio Stations

SEWilco writes "Hundreds of Internet radio stations that use SWCast.net for services have been affected by a shutdown triggered by SoundExchange, who claim lack of payment of royalty fees. Apparently SoundExchange has a new president, and this might be a factor in acting on several years of missing payments. In the meantime, SWCast radio stations suffer after paying to legally broadcast."

Comments

Re:A sucker born every minute

[westlake]

SoundExhange is not old media.

SoundExchange is a non-profit corporation that collects and distributes the statutory royalties for performances in new media:

- Digital cable and satellite television services (Music Choice and Muzak)
- Non-interactive 'webcasters" (including original programmers and retransmissions of FCC-licensed radio stations by aggregators)
- Satellite radio services.

The split looks like this:

50% to the sound recording copyright owmer.
45% to the featured artist. (which can be a group or ensemble)
5% to non-featured artists.

The payout to date: $614 million.

To about 46,000* registered performers and 6,000 SCROs - an SCRO can be an artist owned "label," of course.

Registration is free, "membership" is free, but membership is not required. SoundExchange

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* In a population of 300 million, this may give you some notion of what it takes to become a professional musician with significant national exposure.