If you haven’t heard of Pandora then shame on you! It is an excellent source of free music streamed through your browser.
Well it seems that they along with other internet radio stations need some help staving off a triple increase in the licensing fees.
Tim from Pandora explains it all way better than me, and explains what you can do to help!
Hi, it’s Tim from Pandora,
I’m writing today to ask for your help. The survival of Pandora and all of Internet radio is in jeopardy because of a recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC to almost triple the licensing fees for Internet radio sites like Pandora. The new royalty rates are irrationally high, more than four times what satellite radio pays, and broadcast radio doesn’t pay these at all. Left unchanged, these new royalties will kill every Internet radio site, including Pandora.
In response to these new and unfair fees, we have formed the SaveNetRadio Coalition, a group that includes listeners, artists, labels and webcasters. I hope that you will consider joining us.
Please sign our petition urging your Congressional representative to act to save Internet radio: http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/?alertid=9631541
Please feel free to forward this link/email to your friends – the more petitioners we can get, the better.
Understand that we are fully supportive of paying royalties to the artists whose music we play, and have done so since our inception. As a former touring musician myself, I’m no stranger to the challenges facing working musicians. The issue we have with the recent ruling is that it puts the cost of streaming far out of the range of ANY webcaster’s business potential.
I hope you’ll take just a few minutes to sign our petition – it WILL make a difference. As a young industry, we do not have the lobbying power of the RIAA. You, our listeners, are by far our biggest and most influential allies.
As always, and now more than ever, thank you for your support.
-Tim Westergren
(Pandora founder)
Dear Mr Marshall
Thank you for contacting me regarding the recent ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board. I appreciate hearing from you and would like to take this opportunity to respond.
On March 2, 2007, the Copyright Royalty Board of the Library of Congress issued a ruling that proposes changing royalty rates from a percentage of revenue to a per-song, per-listener fee for online radio stations. The new rates will be retroactive to 2006 and will be increased incrementally each year through 2010. For 2007, online radio stations would pay $0.0011 per-song per-listener.
I understand your concern that these new rates will limit access to online radio. Please know that I will continue to monitor negotiations between online radio services, the recording industry, and the Copyright Royalty Board. In addition, I will keep your thoughtful comments in mind should legislation be considered on the federal level.
Again, thank you for sharing your views with me. If you have any further questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me. In addition, for more information about issues and activities important to Florida, please sign up for my weekly newsletter at http://martinez.senate.gov.
Sincerely,
Mel Martinez
United States Senator