David Byrne’s Tracking Webcasting Fees

From David Byrne’s Journal this morning, in reference to the recent ruling that the copyright panel in charge of setting webcasting licensing fees is refusing to hear further arguments:

Here are some links/articles on the web radio issue that was decided yesterday:

The Death of Web Radio? [Business Week Online]
Net Radio Operators Lose Appeal Over Fees [c|net news.com]
SaveNetRadio.org

Interesting that SoundExchange initiated the whole thing…and that
they are a non-profit created by the big record labels. Hmmm. One could
say conflict of interest but cleverly held at arm’s length by the
creation of this mouthpiece?

Basically, because the fees are retroactive to last year, most small webcasters will go bankrupt in May after receiving the bill for royalties that — for the most part — don’t seem to be making their way to artists anyway. (What few royalties are generated through this system end up getting recouped by labels.) Good going, guys.

Technorati Tags: ,

In