 2007: The Year in RAIN (Part 2) ·Dec 20, 01:00 AM We continue our RAIN Year in Review with a recap of the major news stories that followed in the wake of the CRB decision, including Congressional discussion of royalty rates for webcasters as well as broadcasters, and developments in world of mobile audio. Click here for Part 1 of our feature. Webcasters get breathing room; CRB pushes D-Day to July 15th “In a twist that greatly improves the likelihood that Congress could pass legislation in time to save Internet radio from collapsing under the burden of impossibly-high royalty rates, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), in publishing its determination in the Federal Register yesterday, added one word to their crbdecision that moves the due date for payments under the new rates from May 15th to July 15th. “The original version of their decision said that payments under the new rate — including a retroactive payment for the period going back to January 2006 — were due 45 days after the end of the month in which the determination was issued. The determination was issued on March 2nd; thus the due date would have been May 15th.” Webcasters speak, Congress listens during D.C. “Hill Walk” “A large group of webcasters, artists, and independent record label executives spent Tuesday navigating the hallways of our nation’s capital, petitioning members of Congress to help the webcast industry chart a course that will allow the blossoming industry to thrive without the crippling royalty rates mandated by the CRB. “Participants in Tuesday’s ‘Hill walk,’ organized by the SaveNetRadio.org coalition included representatives from webcasters like Live365, Pandora, and LoudCity, in addition to musicians and label reps from across the country (as well as the full RAIN staff).” Citing licensing issues, Pandora shuts out most of non-U.S. world “Streaming recommendation service Pandora is now excluding non-U.S. listeners, at least until proper licenses pandoraare secured. “The company had previously been servicing non-U.S. listeners by applying a lax registration restriction, though the company is now using IP-based identifiers to limit the outsiders.” Berman-Coble letter makes SX’s argument to SX “Monday’s SoundExchange offer to small webcasters to reauthorize the rates and terms of the Small Webcaster Settlement Act of 2002 (with some unspecified modifications) was, according to the press release, supposedly spurred by a letter from Reps. Howard Berman (D-CA, right) and Howard Coble (R-NC, left), the Chairman and ranking minority member, respectively, of the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property. “Copies of the Berman-Coble letter, apparently released by SoundExchange to various journalists earlier this week and subsequently obtained by RAIN, are surprisingly interesting.” CBS buys Last.fm for $280 million “CBS Corp. acquired social-networking Web site Last.fm Ltd. for $280 million, delving further into the music business where it was once one of the major players. “Last.fm, founded in 2002, claims it has more than 15 million active users in more than 200 countries…” Hanson, SoundEx board member Rosenthal debate in L.A. Times “This week, the L.A. Times is featuring a series of ‘point/counterpoint’ exchanges between RAIN publisher Kurt Hanson and SoundExchange and RAC board member Jay Rosenthal regarding numerous issues underscored by the CRB ruling, including the purpose and need for copyright, fair compensation to artists, and royalty structures that would allow the booming webcast industry to continue growing apace…” “In response to a impending royalty rate increase that, if implemented, would lead to the virtual shutdown of Internet radio in the U.S., thousands of webcasters khplan to go silent next Tuesday, June 26, to draw attention to their industry’s plight. “This ‘Day of Silence’ is an encore of a successful media event that small webcasters organized on May 1, 2002 in response to a similarly royalty rate ruling from a Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP) five years ago. That event garnered national attention and was subsequently followed by a rate cut by the Librarian of Congress and the passage of the Small Webcaster Settlement Act for the period 1998-2005.” Massive listener support crippples servers, switchboards “A massive response by listeners to today’s ongoing “Day of Silence” event has overwhelmed the web and database servers being used by SaveNetRadio.org and is tying up switchboards in Congressional offices all over Capitol Hill as a deluge of online radio listeners have capwiz high trafficrushed to contact their representatives to ask them to co-sponsor the ‘Internet Radio Equality Act.’ “Beginning just before 10AM CT, the SaveNetRadio.org site saw huge numbers of visitors begin to arrive, coming from links set up by webcasters participating in today’s event.” Small Business Committee hears testimony for, against CRB rates “The House Small Business Committee heard testimony today from a variety of webcasters, artists and record label execs both in favor of and against the Copyright Royalty Board’s decision to dramatically increase performance royalty rates for webcasters. “Given the impact of the CRB royalty rates on webcasting small businesses, the Small Business Committee could be a key ally in pushing the legislation. Currently, 12 Representatives who have co-sponsored H.R. 2060 sit on the Small Business Committee.” SoundExchange tells Congress webcasters may keep streaming “According to a commitment made yesterday by SoundExchange executive director John Simson in front of the House Commerce committee, small and noncommercial webcasters may continue streaming next week — i.e., after the CRB’s effective date of July 15th — without fear of the threat of legal action against them, and may continue doing so as long as good-faith negotiations between the parties are continuing. “In an interview with RAIN last night, Simson explained, “For the people who want to comply with the law and are in bona fide negotiations with us, we don’t want those people to be intimidated. And we don’t want them to stop streaming.” Simson qualified his statement by noting, ‘That’s just so long as they’re continuing to pay under the license they had.’” “Today, July 16th, was supposed to be the ‘The Day the Music Died’ for Internet radio, had the CRB judges’ decision on 2006-10 royalty rates stood firm. But instead, the music is still playing as the parties involved try to reach various negotiated settlements — under the watchful eye of Congress. “At a closed-door ‘roundtable’ meeting last Thursday convened by House Commerce Committee member Rep. Ed Markey, and attended by various representatives of the music industry and certain invited webcasters, the parties were apparently told to work expeditiously toward negotiated solutions that would provide reasonable compensation for copyright owners while keeping the nascent Internet radio industry alive and well…” DiMA/SX negotiations falling apart once again “Negotiations between SoundExchange and DiMA, which seemed to be going productively following last Thursday’s Commerce committee roundtable meeting, are apparently falling apart again, according to published reports on Wired.com and DigitalMediaWire.com. “The latest development came yesterday when DiMA officially rejected SoundExchange’s offer to cap the per-channel minimum fee, citing ‘unworkable demands’ that would be imposed on webcasters designed to prevent streamripping…” SoundExchange tells RAIN: DRM not the only solution “SoundExchange spokesperson Richard Ades told RAIN today that, despite press reports to the contrary, his organization’s request for “help” with streamripping is not necessarily a demand for DRM-protected streams. “Ades said that his group ‘[does not] think it’s just DRM — we believe that there are a lot of potential technical solutions.’” Artists’ message to Judiciary: “Radio airplay is not promotional” “Recording artists and a member of the U.S. Copyright office were among witnesses who argued today in a Congressional hearing that the promotional value of broadcast radio insufficiently compensates artists for their work, and asked Congress to impose a new performance royalty on broadcast radio. “Much of the testimony heard today by the Committee for the Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, a subcommittee of the House Committee on the Judiciary, challenged the broadcast industry’s longstanding exemption from paying a performance royalty… SoundEx formalizes offer to VERY small webcasters “SoundExchange offered a proposal yesterday that would allow the smallest commercial webcast operators to pay a percentage-of-revenue royalty rate through 2010. “The offer is only valid for copyrighted material owned by SoundExchange-member labels. All non-SX member material would be subject to CRB rates…” DiMA, SoundExchange strike deal to cap per-channel minimum fee “SoundExchange and a number of webcast services have reached a deal to cap the contentious $500 per-channel minimum fee for large webcasters. “The deal, reached today at a private meeting in New York City, will cap the per-channel fee at $50,000 annually. Services party to today’s agreement include DiMA-member stations AOL, Yahoo! LaunchCast, Pandora, Live365, MTV, and RealNetworks…” Detroit Wireless Rock City: Autos gearing up, cutting cords “From the Wall Street Journal: I am not a tech-savvy guy. Still, when I get into my car for the morning commute, I bristle with digital devices… “Car makers and inventors have been trying to develop a safe way for drivers to manage their digital clutter…” share: del.icio.us.  Reddit  Digg  Yahoo  Wink  Windows  Google  Newsvine 
Comment Other stories RAIN 8/19: Top webcasters hold their ground in July's webcast metrics ratings RAIN 8/18: Pandora tells press it's nearing "pull-the-plug" decision RAIN 8/15: iPhone doubles Pandora mobile listening; experts say mobile wi-fi should scare FM, satellite RAIN 8/14: Net radio's educated, affluent, at-work audience impacts July PPM RAIN 8/13: CBS Radio says growing digital revenues spurred by online ratings spike RAIN 8/12: For Pandora iPhone ads, the future may be "all about ears" RAIN 8/11: Wilhelms: Labels will take at least 50% of a radio royalty, but Simson's op-ed never mentions it RAIN 8/7: Salem's Internet gains ease pain of losses on radio side Bob Bellin on the satellite radio merger RAIN 8/6: "Gulf" between viewpoints may stall royalty compromise, says Oxenford |
