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Net Radio: 'New Song Royalties Will Kill Us' (PC World)

“Internet radio stations are mobilizing in the wake of a potentially costly new royalty fee structure approved earlier this week by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB).

The board decided Monday that commercial Internet radio stations, regardless of their size, will pay a new, higher flat fee to the record labels each time a song is played. The increase applies to songs played in 2007, and retroactively for 2006 at a slightly lower rate. As it stands now, the rates will go into effect in about a month.

"The CRB's ill informed decision to increase royalty fees to this unjustifiable level will quite simply bankrupt most webcasters and destroy Internet radio," says the Net radio stations' newly formed coalition, SaveNetRadio.org.

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