Some Small Radio Webcasters Scoff At Royalty Offer From SoundExchange
Just as higher copyright rates were to take effect for streaming music online, SoundExchange, the music industry group that collects the royalties, offered a reprieve for small and non-commercial sites. More than a month later, the group’s definition of “small” is being disputed and some of the target sites are saying no to a compromise that would charge royalties of 10-12 percent for webcasters with $1.25 million or less in annual gross revenue and a certain number of listeners. Some webcasters, including participants in continuing negotiations with SoundExchange, have told AP they plan to reject the offer. Rusty Hodge at SomaFM in San Francisco suggests SoundExhange follow the Small Business Administration’s definition of small companies as earning $6 million or less in annual revenue. The deadline to accept the offer is Sept. 14 or the much-higher rates that were supposed to start July 15 will take effect.
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Comments (1)
Aug 22, 2007 11:32 PM
Actually, it’s the “usage caps” that I have the biggest issue with; SomaFM currently exceeds the usage caps (unless you don’t count our international listeners). But even not counting the international listeners, at the rate we’re growing in 12-24 months we’ll be over the usage cap; and have to pay at the higher CRB rate for all the listeners we have over that amount AS WELL AS pay the percentage of revenue royalty. So we’re “double-taxed” if our audience is over a certain size.
Stations like DI.fm and Club 977 are well over those usage amounts according to public statistics on Shoutcast.com. I’m sure that 1.FM and Radioio are as well.
If sound exchange wanted to make a real offer, they’d raise the revenue cap and remove the listener caps (aka usage caps), and just extend the previous SWSA rates.
One other important thing to note: This agreement is ONLY for artists represented by SoundExchange. All music played from non-SoundExchange members must be paid for at the CRB rate!
This “offer” is completely useless, and I don’t think any webcaster in their right mind would take it.