U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sam Brownback (R-KS) have introduced legislation to keep promising to defend internet radio erasing the Copyright Royalty Board’s decision that could increase internet radio sound recording royalties by 300 percent to 1,200 percent. The proposed Senate legislation is a companion to a House of Representatives bill that was initiated by Reps. Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Don Manzullo (R-IL).

In March, the CRB said endorsed a rate-increase proposal sponsored by SoundExchange, a tax-exempt royalty association associated with the RIAA. Collections of those fees are set to begin July 15. Rates are slated to rise from the previous $0.00076 per-listener/per-song ($0.0002 for non-commercial stations) to $0.0011 per from this year and make a retrospective increase to $0.0008 for 2006.

In a statement from Sen. Wyden’s office, he notes that currently, over the air radio stations only pay royalties to songwriters, while internet radio and satellite radio pay royalties to both songwriters and record companies/recording artists.  However satellite radio only pays royalties of 7.5 percent of their revenue.  The Internet Radio Equality Act of 2007 claims to correct the disparity by putting Internet radio on par with satellite radio.  Secondly, the legislation would create special royalty rules for the webcasting arms of non-commercial broadcasters like National Public Radio and college radio. The legislation also would undo the $500 per-channel minimum royalty fee set by the CRB. Release

SEE ALSO: -- Net Radio Stations Given 60 Days To Find Cash, Fight Or Die