IP Democracy: The Music Dies Today: Webcasters Protest Silently

A lot of web radio listeners are waking up to confusion this morning because their favorite music sites are silent. That’s intentional as webcasters form a silent wall of protest against a royalty fee hike that could force them out of business.

The new rates, put forth by an arm of the RIAA called SoundExchange and adopted by a body of Congress called the Copyright Royalty board, could raise payments that online radio stations pay to recording artists by at least 300%, according to a coalition of webcasters called SaveNetRadio. Although some major companies are involved, including Yahoo! and MTV, most of the webcasters who will be hit by the fee increases are small outfits who can ill afford the extra costs such as The Geek Radio, PopFusion Radio and IndieAirplay.

The full list of webcasters participating in the silent protest is here (PDF). Although a bill has been introduced that could derail the new rate hikes, they’re expected to go into effect on July 15.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on June 26, 2007 9:19 AM to IP Democracy