Will Web Radio Get Turned Off?
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Last week the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board, an obscure arm of the Library of Congress, voted to more than double the fees Web sites that stream music must pay record companies.The higher rates will affect all Internet radio businesses, from mom-and-pop commercial Webcasters to big portal destinations such as Time Warner’s AOL and Yahoo!
Under the decision, Internet radio businesses will have to increase the royalty they pay for each song they stream from .08 cents in 2006 to .19 cents in 2010. That doesn’t sound like much, but given the large number of songs that they stream, Web music companies say the cost could be enough to hobble their industry.
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