I've been hearing a little bit here and there about the royalty rates that the US government wants to impose on Internet Radio. I decided to do some research this morning and I was appalled. First of all they are making a law in 2007 that applies retroactively to Jan 1, 2006. Anyone else see a problem with this? I certainly do. Second, they want to increase the royalty rate 37.5% for 2007, and 28% for each following year. Raise your hand if you get that big of a raise (especially a pre-determined one) every year. I didn't think so. Yet again the recording industry is flexing its big muscles with congress and influencing the entire Internet radio business. I'm not sure what normal broadcast stations pay, but I'm sure that it's a percentage of revenue--similar to the current internet radio deals--and not a charge per "impression" which is what this is.
This would effect me (and at least 2 of my 3.14159 readers) quite a bit as I tend to listen to several RadioIO stations as well as have created a few Pandora stations. Both of these, but especially Pandora, allow me to listen to music that I want to and not the radio killed, mainstream garbage that the RIAA shoves down our throats through the broadcast stations.
