The web radio sector in the US has been given two more months to prepare for or, rather, fight the proposed increase in webcasting royalty payments.
As previously reported, internet radio companies are busy exploring legal and political ways to overturn a ruling made by the US Copyright Royalty Board back in March that will hike up the royalty payments the webcasters have to pay to the record labels in order to include music on their services. The web radio community claim that the increased fees will put many smaller webcasters out of business, and force bigger players to reduce their services. They also argue that the new rates give terrestrial and satellite radio stations an unfair advantage over web services.
Despite the vocal opposition coming from the web radio industry, the CRB refused to review its decision last month. However, yesterday it said it was postponing the start date for the new royalty rates from 15 May to 15 Jul, to give the webcasters the opportunity to go through the appeals process.
A statement from the SaveNetRadio Coalition, which represents many key US webcasters, said yesterday: "This is welcome news for webcasters, the artists they support, and the millions of listeners who enjoy internet radio".
The web radio sector seems to be concentrating much of its efforts on the political route after two Representatives, Jay Inslee and Donald Manzullo, proposed the Internet Radio Equality Act last month, which would link the royalties paid by webcasters to the more favourable system enjoyed by satellite radio stations. On the political campaign, the SaveNetRadio Coalition continued: "SaveNetRadio will spend the next 45 days educating members of Congress and their staffs about the incredible diversity of programming internet radio offers us all. We will set the ticking clock back 60 days and continue our fight to free internet radio from these devastating fee increases"
Whether the webcasters can fight off the new royalty rates - through the legal or political system - before the new deadline remains to be seen. SoundExchange, the collection society that represents the record industry in the web radio domain, is sure to fight its own fight to keep the rates set by the CRB. They too have begun their own political lobbying, arguing SaveNetRadio is, in fact, dominated by the big web companies who are using concerns about the impact of the new rates on small web radio firms to help bring their own royalty payments down.