Copyright Board Declines To Delay Webcast Royalty Hike

“The Copyright Royalty Board, an obscure group of federal judges, set the new rates in March, eliminating a provision that allowed small webcasters to pay 10% to 12% of their revenues instead of a set per-song fee for every listener. The current rate of .0762 of a cent each time a song is played will more than double by 2010, and many Internet radio stations will face royalty payments greater than their revenues. Many individuals make little or no money through their online stations, so the decision made webcasting prohibitively expensive.”