Web Broadcasters Continue Talks With Music Industry Over Royalties

WEB BROADCASTERS CONTINUE TALKS WITH MUSIC INDUSTRY OVER ROYALTIES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sarah McBride sarah.mcbride@wsj.com]
Web broadcasters continued negotiations with the music industry over higher online music royalties even after the July 15 deadline to put the rates into place. Many online radio broadcasters have complained that the new royalty rates are too high and would force some of them to go off the air. Previously, online radio stations paid a percentage of their revenue as a royalty. Under the new rules, larger Webcasters, such as Yahoo Inc.'s Yahoo! Music and Time Warner's AOL Music, will pay rates that start at .08 cents a song, per listener and per play; smaller Webcasters for now would continue to pay a percentage of revenue. As the royalty increase took effect over the weekend, many Internet broadcasters continued to play music. Some said they have begun to pay the higher rates. Yahoo was among the broadcasters that said they would start paying the higher rates now while they continued negotiations with SoundExchange, a body that represents artists and music labels. AOL said it had already paid the higher rates for May; June and July rates are still pending. SoundExchange doesn't appear to be attempting to collect the higher royalties yet. It has reached out to continue talks with small Webcasters. The Digital Music Association, which represents many larger Webcasters, said it was trying to set up talks for later this week. National Public Radio and SoundExchange held talks Friday about the rates public radio stations would ultimately pay.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118463027408468227.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace
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