Internet Radio broadcasting is history

THE SHORT ERA of small internet radio stations is over after the Copyright Royalty Board have given the thumbs up to new fees to broadcast copyrighted material.

The fee structure has been kept low for a number of years, as the music industry came to terms with the new Internet technology.

But last year a new fee structure was imposed which Internet broadcasters tried to oppose. Now the CRB has said that it will not rehear appeals from Interweb companies and is saying that all royalties will have to be collected by May.

The pay by song structure has been modified for two years to allow webcasters have to calculate fees by average listening hours. After next year they will have to pay on a per-song, per-listener basis.

Webcasters say that the sharply higher royalty fees will put them out of business. Mark Lam, the CEO of Live365 which aggregates audio streams from thousands of radio stations and other small webcasters, said that under the new royalty rules, "there was no industry." As it is most Internet broadcasters don't make much money.

More here.