A Day of Silence for Internet Radio

Internet Radio broadcasters, in protest to the impending increase of record company royalties mandated by the CRB, have called for a day of radio silence on June 26th. The new laws, which will "force webcasters to pay an annual fee plus 12 percent of their profits to SoundExchange, the industry’s royalty collection agency", will force many internet radio services to close shop for good, and in response many of those affected are attempting to petition congress to make a stand on their behalf.

In the mean time, the day of silence should, at the very least, get their common plight into the public eye, at which point it will be up to listeners to get their favorite stations back if the legislation is not reversed beforehand, which is of course highly unlikely.

So far, it would seem that the service Pandora is acting as the spokesperson for the protest, otherwise known as the "SaveNetRadio Coalition."

Pandora’s founder Tim Westergren wrote a letter detailing the reasons they need help:

Hi, it’s Tim from Pandora,

I’m writing today to ask for your help. The survival of Pandora and all of Internet radio is in jeopardy because of a recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC to almost triple the licensing fees for Internet radio sites like Pandora.

In response to these new and unfair fees, we have formed the SaveNetRadio Coalition, a group that includes listeners, artists, labels and webcasters. I hope that you will consider joining us.

Please sign our petition urging your Congressional representative to act to save Internet radio: http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/?alertid=9631541

Understand that we are fully supportive of paying royalties to the artists whose music we play, and have done so since our inception. As a former touring musician myself, I’m no stranger to the challenges facing working musicians. The issue we have with the recent ruling is that it puts the cost of streaming far out of the range of ANY webcaster’s business potential.

It will be interesting to see how this all turns out. It seems likely, however, that this will be a last stand and an ultimately ineffective rhetorical gesture. We wish internet radio the best of luck.

Wired: Pandora And Others Launch Save Internet Radio Campaign

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