Help Webcasters Save Internet Radio by Signing Savenetradio Petition
I have been listening to Pandora Internet Radio for almost a year now and think that it is the best streaming music player on the net today. So, when I received an email from Tim Westergren, Pandora’s founder asking me to help save Internet radio by signing a petition I took notice.
I had already heard about the Copyright Royalty Board’s decision to increase rates for Internet radio broadcasters that could put many of the smaller stations out of business and threaten larger broadcasters like Pandora. But, I didn’t do anything about it like right my U.S. senators or house representative. I just read articles about what was going on and sat back and hoped for the best.
Well, now I know the decision has been made to raise royalty rates by 300 to 1200 percent. Wow! In 2006 the rate is $.0008 per performance (this is retroactive). By 2010 that rate will increase to $.0019 per performance. For a more detailed description read David Oxenford’s post on Broadcast Law Blog, Copyright Royalty Board Release Decision - Rates are Going Up Significantly and his follow up More on the Copyright Board Decision on Internet Radio Music Royalties.
That may not seem like much until you start adding up the number of listeners and the number of songs they listen to. For Pandora that increase could force them to stop broadcasting over the Internet. That would be a pity. And, many smaller Internet Radio stations will also be in jeopardy possibly making Internet Radio, especially free services supported by advertising, a thing of the past.
In response to the action by the Copyright Royalty Board Pandora (read SAVENETRADIO…Please Join Us at Pandora’s blog) and other webcasters have launched a campaign to try and reverse the decision and created a site SaveNetRadio.org which provides information about the effect of higher music royalty rates on webcasters big and small. Included on the site is a petition that can be faxed, emailed or printed out to be mailed to your U.S. senators and house representative.
The petition is very easy to fill in and if you choose to email the petition the site sends it right off, you don’t have to look up email addresses, making it very easy. I guess that is one of the reasons I filled out the petition — they did most of the work for me.
So, I ask you as my readers, some of you Internet Radio listeners and broadcasters, to fill out the petition and have it sent off to your U.S. legislators. Hopefully, we will make a difference.
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