Serendipity35

Internet radio broadcasters got a reprieve on paying higher music royalties until July 15.

Though I have written about this twice before, I focused on services like Pandora. If the higher fees are approved, this will also affect college and high school radio stations that broadcast music online forcing them to pay at least $500 in new fees per year.

The fees apply only to digital broadcasts of music. These would be paid to the artists and record labels. Traditional radio stations would not pay these fees and satellite radio broadcasters would also be charged a fee though less than online stations. The new royalties are on top of fees currently paid to the publishers and composers of music by all radio stations.

So what is the reasoning behind charging online stations the highest fees?

The premise is that airplay by traditional broadcasters is considered to be a form of promotion for record sales, and with online stations it's not promotion. That makes no sense to me.

I am far more likely to buy a CD or pay for a download from hearing a song online, if only because I can see the artist/title/album right there (trad stations hardly ever even tell you that anymore) and because I can probably just click a link on a site like Pandora to purchase the song or album.