Serendipity35

The future of Internet radio is in jeopardy. The Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC (which oversees sound recording royalties paid by Internet radio services) has announced that royalty rates for webcasters will be tripled starting May 15 (and retroactive to 1/1/06 just to really destroy it). If that isn't changed, it will kill off Internet radio.

Internet radio (AKA e-Radio or webcasting) is audio broadcasting transmitted via the Internet. That means it is not transmitted broadly through wireless means (so it's not "broadcasting")

It's also not just a streaming of audio (where listeners have no control over content) and it's not podcasting or downloading audio files.

Without Congressional action, the majority of webcasters will be forced to call it quits.

I first heard about this in an email from Tim Westergren from Pandora. Pandora is the first Net radio service that I used. It allows you to set up your own personal "stations" by selecting songs and artits you like as a starting place. Then, the service picks music that you should enjoy. You tell it what you like or dislike and it gets smarter about picking music for your station.

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. The new royalty rates are irrationally high, more than four times what satellite radio pays and broadcast radio doesn't pay these at all. Left unchanged, these new royalties will kill every Internet radio site, including 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

Please feel free to forward this link/email to your friends - the more petitioners we can get, the better.

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.

I hope you'll take just a few minutes to sign our petition - it WILL make a difference. As a young industry, we do not have the lobbying power of the RIAA. You, our listeners, are by far our biggest and most influential allies.

As always, and now more than ever, thank you for your support.
Tim Westergren
(Pandora founder)

At the request of the Recording Industry Association of America, the CRB ignored the fact that Internet radio royalties were already double what satellite radio pays, and multiplied the royalties even further. And webcasters were not making much as it was since advertising revenue is just beginning to develop.

In the past year, Net radio went from 45 million listeners per month to 72 million listeners each month. Internet radio is already popular and it is already benefiting thousands of artists who are finding new fans online every day.

The SaveNetRadio Coalition has been formed to represent every webcaster, every Net Radio listener, and every artist who enjoys and benefits from this medium. This past week at the Radio and Internet Newsletter Las Vegas Summit, the coalition officially launched a national campaign to reverse the Copyright Royalty Board increase.

The campaign needs your help. Please take a moment to sign the petition and send a letterto your member of Congress to let your representative know how important Internet radio is to you.

I did it online and it automatically addressed my mail to my Senators and Congressman.

To: Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ);Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ); Representative Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-NJ 8th)
Subject: Another listener & voter who doesn't want to let Internet Radio Be Crushed

As a fan of Internet radio, I was alarmed to learn that the Copyright Royalty Board has decided to raise music royalty rates by 300 to 1200 percent. For most webcasters the new royalties exceed their revenue and they simply will go bankrupt and stop webcasting.

The silencing of Internet radio would be a blow to listeners like me who enjoy the wide variety of choices only available via Internet radio. This will kill the great diversity of music that I hear over the Internet and all the independent artists who have a difficult time breaking through on other forms of radio.

I respectfully request that Congress look into this matter and take action to prevent it. Please understand that time is of the essence since the new royalty rates are retroactive to January 1, 2006 so they will cause immediate bankruptcies if they become effective for even one day. Please don't let the music die.

In a few minutes, I received a receipt email from Congressman Pascrell which at least encourages me that his office is using the technology.

Thank you for contacting me through the House of Representatives Constituent Electronic Mail System (CEMS). I am pleased to be a part of this effort to offer citizens an efficient way to communicate with their representatives in Congress.
I will reply to all residents of the 8th Congressional district of New Jersey via email as quickly as possible. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Bill Pascrell, Jr., Member of Congress