Music Labels Reach Royalty Deal With Online Stations
The conflict began in March 2007, when the federal Copyright Royalty Board ruled that all so-called webcasters needed to pay a fee, set to increase to 0.19 cent a song next year, each time they streamed a song. Webcasters said the fees would eat up most of their revenue, which mostly comes from online advertising.
Many of the streaming music sites had argued that all sites should pay a percentage of revenue rather than a per-song fee. They noted that satellite radio stations pay a cut of their revenue, while broadcast stations pay nothing to artists and labels.
Under the new agreement, though, almost all Internet radio stations will pay the new, lower per-song fee, because that will be more than 25 percent of revenue.
Source: The New York Times
