SoundExchange said last week it reached agreement with several of the largest webcasters on its proposed cap on the minimum fee charged against royalties for sound recordings played on Internet Radio.
The Digital Media Association, DiMA, called it a good first step.
Recently-enacted regulations by the Copyright Royalty Board require each webcasting service to pay a $500 minimum fee “per station or channel” regardless of the overall number of stations/channels they are streaming. The agreement addresses the concerns of certain webcasters about their liability for per channel minimums by calling for a cap of $50,000 per service on the $500 per station advance against royalties, according to SoundExchange.
DiMA and SoundExchange said the agreement calls for census reporting (i.e., reporting all tracks played by a service as opposed to a sampling) and cooperation on discussion and assessment of anti-stream-ripping technologies. There is no requirement that any of the services implement any particular technology, nor that they develop, or accept from a third party, a particular technology.
