 RAIN 8/3: Four webcaster groups score last-minute royalty settlements with SoundExchange ·Aug 3, 11:15 AM COLLEGE AND RELIGIOUS WEBCASTERS, SIRIUS XM, AND “GROUP TO BE NAMED LATER” FORGE DEALSSoundExchange announced new royalty deals with 4 webcaster groups just ahead of the deadline set by the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009. The legislation permitted SoundExchange to settle new royalty rates with webcasters before July 30 (RAIN coverage here). College radio broadcasters, noncommercial religious broadcasters, Sirius XM and a group to be named later all have reached royalty agreements with SoundExchange. All 4 agreements set royalty rates from 2006 through 2015, according to SoundExchange’s press release (found here).
COLLEGE RADIO
The deal also stipulates that stations with less than an average of 75 simultaneous users can forgo any reporting to SoundExchange for a fee of $100. Stations with over an average of 75 simultaneous users, but below 218, “will be required to submit reports of use, but they will not have to submit audience data,” according to CBI. Above an average of 218 simulatenous users and stations must submit census reports. The College Broadcasters, Inc. has more details on the agreement here. The Intercollegiate Broadcasting System, Inc. (IBS) has rejected the deal, however. Fritz Kazz, COO of IBS said that after the recent July 10 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals (RAIN coverage here), “noncommercial educational webcasters are no longer required to pay a minimum of $500 to SoundExchange retroactive to January 1, 2006…it is beyond imagination why any high school or college webcaster would opt in to an agreement for 2009-2010 that would increase their payments to $500.” RELIGIOUS BROADCASTERS Religious and non-commercial stations streaming online will pay a per-performance fee under this new deal, though details have not yet been disclosed by SoundExchange. The fee will be less than those set by the Copyright Royalty Board in 2007 and will “rise steadily each year through 2015.” Like college stations, religious and non-commercial streamers will face less rigorous recordkeeping requirements and can be exempted from any recordkeeping by paying an additional fee.
The deal between Sirius XM and SoundExchange applies to the satellite radio’s Internet streams (such as those found on Sirius XM’s iPhone application). Sirius XM will pay a minimum per-channel fee of $500, along with per-performance fees. Further details on the fee structure have not yet been released. UNNAMED GROUP The fourth deal announced by Oxenford also observes that no deals with large, non-pureplay webcasters (“i.e. they have substantial business outside of noninteractive webcasting”) have been disclosed. “Whether any of these webcasters are the the ‘group to be named later’ remains to be seen.” We’ll have additional coverage here at RAIN as more details emerge. For more information on all the previously announced webcaster royalty deals, please reference our royalty walk-through here. KATZ 360 TO SELL ADS FOR PANDORAKatz 360, the digital sales group of Clear Channel’s Katz Media Group, will be selling ads for Pandora alongside the webcaster’s in-house sales division. “What this provides is a way to scale our ad-sales effort immediately,” Pandora founder Tim Westergren told AdAge (here). “When you grow as fast as we have this quickly, your inventory gets ahead of you. Plugging into an endemic, national network of sellers is a  great point of leverage for a company like Pandora that is experiencing hypergrowth. Over time, as we grow into our shoes, this relationship will naturally evolve.”
AdAge wondered if that “natural evolution” would include content partnerships between Pandora and Clear Channel, but Westergren said the deal is “about ad sales, nothing more.” Pandora’s director-audio sales Doug Stern reportedly expected Pandora to double their $18 million 2008 ad revenue this year before the deal with Katz 360, “and is now even more optimistic that Pandora will fit into advertisers’ mind-set as often as it does listeners.” WEBCASTERS HOPE TO RAISE ISSUE OF PARITY IN PERFORMANCE RIGHTS ACT SENATE HEARINGSThe primary debate surrounding the Performance Rights Act (S379) as it heads to the Senate Judiciary Committee is whether terrestrial radio should pay performance royalties, but some webcasters hope to also raise the issue of platform parity. That is, addressing why Internet radio pays royalties vastly higher than satellite and broadcast radio. RealNetworks executive vice president and general counsel Bob Kimball (pictured) will testify before the Committee on Tuesday, discussing this very topic. “Balanced legislation that ensures internet radio and all our competitors pay royalties, and that the royalty amounts are both fair and equitable among competing technologies and business models, means everyone wins,” said Kimball.
“[These] hearings will hopefully serve as a precursor to fundamental changes in copyright law that will establish sound recording royalty parity across all forms of radio, including large and small broadcasters, webcasters and satellite radio,” said executive director of DiMA (Digital Media Association) Jonathan Potter. For more, check out Digital Music News’ coverage here. Industry attorney David Oxenford has more on the upcoming Committee hearings at his Broadcast Law Blog 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 |
The deal for college radio stations was reached after negotiations between College Broadcasters, Inc. and SoundExchange. Any college radio station or other noncommercial educational webcaster choosing to opt-in to this new deal would pay a minimum $500 annual fee for up to 159,140 aggregated tuning hours a month (around 208 average concurrent users in any month, according to 
SoundExchange includes a group not yet named. This agreement was reached late Thursday night, according to SoundExchange, and the group “will be confirmed publicly in coming weeks.” The mystery surrounding this fourth group “sounds like something out of a trade of baseball players done right at the trading deadline,” writes industry attorney David Oxenford (
