Webcasters observe "Day of Silence"

Internet Radio broadcasters observed on Tuesday a ‘Day of Silence’ to protest new retroactive loyalty rates levied by the Copyright Royalty Board. According to a spokesperson for SaveNetRadio Coalition, more than 14000 webcasters participated in the protest by shutting off their music streams, replacing music with long periods of silence and public service announcements pertaining to the protest. Listeners were asked to contact their congressional representatives and urge them to support the Internet Radio Equality Act.

According to the CRB, royalty payments would be based on per performance basis. Each time an online listener hears a song, it equals one performance. The rates for 2007 have been fixed at $0.0011. They would gradually increase to $0.0019 by 2010. Another aspect is the $500 per month per station minimum payment. The new rates are expected to go into effect from July 15th onwards. The ruling has been appealed to the U.S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Internet broadcasters are of the view that the new ruling would not only increase royalty costs but would also discourage new entrants in the field of webcasting. Tuesday, July 26th 2007, was observed as a ‘Day of Silence’ to encourage the Congress to pass the internet radio Equality Act which would eliminate minimum fee per channel and charge webcasters the same 7.5% of revenue rate enjoyed by satellite radio.

"Webcasters of every size and from every corner of the country will stand united ... to protest a very real and fast-approaching threat to their livelihood," said Jake Ward, SaveNetRadio coalition spokesman in a statement. "With nearly a half-million e-mails and phone calls from webcasters, listeners and the artists they support sent to Congress in just the last two months, this national grass-roots campaign has certainly captured the attention of lawmakers, but there is more to be done and time is running out."

Wanda Atkinson, who along with her husband Jim Atkinson runs 3wk.com, said “It will literally destroy most Web-casters.” Both of them feel that the new ruling will prove to be disadvantageous to small webcasters like themselves.

Richard Ades, a spokesman for SoundExchange, a non-profit organization that collects and distributes musician royalty payments, feels that the new ruling affects the larger webcasters like Yahoo! and AmericaOnline more than the smaller ones.

Yahoo! music had said in a statement on its website on Tuesday: “Apologies to anyone who was hoping to listen to free LaunchCast. We're shutting down the Internet's No. 1 radio service for the day to draw attention to the outrageous rates recently set by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, D.C.”