 RAIN 7/14: Pandora asks listeners to support radio royalty bill ·Jul 14, 10:47 AM WESTERGREN: RADIO ROYALTY SYSTEM “UNFAIR” TO WEBCASTERS, ARTISTSPandora founder Tim Westergren asked listeners to contact House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi and voice their support for the Performance Rights Act, a bill that would require AM/FM broadcasters to pay for the music they play. He called the royalty system for radio, “fundamentally unfair both to Internet radio services like Pandora, which pay higher royalties than other forms of radio, and to musical artists, who receive no compensation at all when their music is played on AM/FM radio.”
The Performance Rights Act calls for terrestrial radio to pay a performance royalty to rights-holders. The radio industry says they should not have to pay such a royalty because of the promotional value airplay gives to an artist’s music. “Why this effect would suddenly cease to apply once one starts streaming the music on the Internet…remains unclear,” notes Ars Technica (here). “Certainly, a powerful case for harmonization can be made, though the ‘fairness’ argument could clearly go either way. Radio might start paying a performance right; on the other hand, perhaps webcasters and satellite radio companies should simply stop paying one, relying on the old argument about promotion.” MICROSOFT TO LAUNCH STREAMING SERVICE BY END OF JULYMicrosoft will launch a music streaming service by the end of July, according to The Telegraph. MSN Executive Producer Peter Bale said the service will resemble Spotify — an ad-supported service in which users can hear songs on-demand or create personalized radio streams like Pandora or Last.fm.
“We are looking at how other similar businesses have structured their business models and trying to figure out what will work best for both consumer and Microsoft,” said Bale. He believes the new service will be able to compete with other streaming companies like Pandora through “scale and a quality of product.” Bale also indicated that the service could be tied in with the company’s Xbox gaming console, while The Telegraph speculates (here) that streaming music could “bolster the appeal of Zune, Microsoft’s music player.” SX PUREPLAY WEBCASTER AGREEMENT AVAILABLE FROM DMWDigital Media Wire has published the actual Pureplay webcaster royalty agreement with SoundExchange, as announced last week (RAIN coverage here). The document — titled “Exhibit A – Agreed Rates and Terms for Commercial Webcasters Including Small Pureplay Webcasters” — outlines the specifics of the new deal, including the new rate structure and requirements to qualify as a “Small Pureplay Webcaster.” Also available is SoundExchange’s letter to the Copyright Office about the royalty agreement. Find both in PDF format at Digital Media Wire here.share: del.icio.us.  Reddit  Digg  Yahoo  Wink  Windows  Google  Newsvine 
CommentCommenting is closed for this article.  Other stories RAIN has upgraded (and moved)! RAIN 9/13: RAIN Summit Chicago takes place today! RAIN 9/12: First Summit in RAIN's hometown takes place tomorrow RAIN 9/9: Summer holidays, "doldrums" impact July Webcast Metrics, but audience up over last year RAIN 9/8: Clear Channel launches new customizable iHeartRadio beta; RAIN goes hands-on RAIN 9/7: Meet more speakers you'll hear at RAIN Summit Chicago in less than a week RAIN 9/6: Clear Channel taps The Echo Nest to take on Pandora RAIN 9/2: RAIN reviews Spotify's radio-like product Artist Radio RAIN 9/1: UK online radio aggregator Radioplayer campaigns b'dcasters to create "all radio" ratings RAIN 8/31: Execs from Merlin, Triton Digital, jacAPPS and more to appear at RAIN Summit Chicago |
Pandora’s action rather begs the question:
Is Tim Westergren the new Mark Cuban?
— Art Marriott · Jul 14, 11:32 AM · #
When has local radio ever charged anyone a dime to listen to music? Unlike Pandora, we have no audience revenue. We have brands we pay to develop and sustain. Are the artists willing to share the costs if they want to raid our brand revenue? We shouldn’t be paying online royalities either. Wonder what the trade-off was that created that monster?
— Mary Beth Garber · Jul 14, 02:18 PM · #
Apparently Tim Westergren doesn’t think ‘airplay’ falls under the ‘compensation whatsoever’ category. Go figure.
— alant · Jul 14, 02:52 PM · #
One might argue that radio airplay isn’t the sole reason CD sales have been falling since 2001. The rise of the iPod, etc., are more likely for this trend than anything else.
— bhance · Jul 15, 09:25 AM · #
Of course Westergren wants everyone to support the royalty. He built a behemoth before the rules were put in place, and now that the royalties are set, he’ll support them to put his smaller competition out of business.
Way to play the game Tim! Now go and secure more venture capital to grow even larger since the market won’t be able to support these fees imposed arbitrarily. Oh wait.. You just did.
— storkks2 · Jul 15, 10:52 AM · #