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Licensing Problem Silences Internet Radio Stations

Posted by Soulskill on from the can't-we-all-just-get-along dept.

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."

5 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. Anagram by oodaloop · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Silences is an anagram for licenses. That's all I have. But I found that more interesting than TFS.

    --
    Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
    1. Re:Anagram by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So swcast is the villain here, not soundexchange.

      The true villain here is the US legal system, for threatening violent coercive force against those music providers who fail to pay a steep tax to a protected class of parasitic rentiers.

  2. Lots of words, but nothing said. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Unfortunately, I don't think things bode well for SWCast members.... The post by the CEO was lots of words about his wonderful past and very little substance about addressing the take down notice by SoundExchange. The SWCast CEO failed to refute any of their claims or provide any reassurance that their service would be up soon (note that this may be on the advice of his lawyers, but he doesn't even mention that he is working with his lawyers to resolve it ASAP)

    He doesn't even apologize to customers for the disruption.

  3. Re:A sucker born every minute by surgen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is not about "old media", this is about knowing that the person you contract with to provide a service is actually providing you that service (in this case license rights).

  4. Re:A sucker born every minute by westlake · · Score: 5, Informative
    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

    ____

    * 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.