By: Spacelab Research Staff
The response to the Copyright Royalty Board's high royalty payment fees gained more momentum this week when Senator Ron Wyden and Senator Sam Brownback introduced the Internet Radio Equality Act, a bill designed to use fair repayment fees instead of the ones introduced by the CRB earlier this year.
The bill will prevent the CRB fees from going into effect, which would double the amount of royalty payments made by web radio stations between now and 2010, effectively pushing most stations out of business and clearing the field for a new breed of larger corporate interests. It also adds new provisions for non-commercial stations.
Analogue (FM/AM) radio stations only pay royalties to song writers. Under the CRB payment schedule, Web radio and satellite radio providers are expected to pay royalties to song writers, record companies and recording artists, at an increasing rate as time goes on.
Satellite radio pays royalties of 7.5 percent of their revenue, and the Internet Radio Equality Act would demand the same royalty payment from web radio stations.
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