Save Internet Radio

A Church article with View Comments posted 18 April 2007.
Tags: copyright, radio

Just found out that the Copyright Royalty Board, the federal board appointed by Congress to set royalty rates on music (among other things), has decided to change how Internet radio broadcasters are charged for broadcasting copyrighted music. Instead of the current percentage-of-profit approach, broadcasters will now be charged per-listener, per-song. This will destroy Internet radio for several reasons:

1. Rates will skyrocket more than 30% year over year for several years under the new plan.
2. For most Internet radio stations, the fee schedule will represent over 100% of their revenues.
3. The change is retroactively effective to the beginning of 2006.

It’s also worth noting that by charging retroactively to the beginning of 2006, this could be considered an unconstitutional ex post facto law.

This may also have implications for terrestrial radio stations that broadcast online, like Christian radio giant Air1. I’ve contacted them for more details.

In the meantime, I encourage everyone to visit Save Our Internet Radio for more information and then sign the petition to protect Internet radio.

You might also enjoy:

1. Air 1 and the Copyright Royalty Board
2. Rural church internet
3. Internet Evangelism Day – April 26
4. The Coming Death or Rebirth of Church Publishing