Another favorite site of mine, Pandora.com, has just shut its doors to the rest of the world reports the New York Times:
Currently, Webcasters pay a percentage of revenue in performance royalties for music streamed to the United States to an industry-backed association called SoundExchange, which collects and distributes the money. But the Copyright Royalty Board has set new rates effective July 15 that change the structure so that Webcasters are charged each time a user listens to a song.That's prompted some to think traditional radio is the next target.The pending rate increases have sparked an intense lobbying campaign in Congress by small Webcasters and large ones like AOL Radio and Clear Channel.
Those efforts prompted Senators Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, and Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, to introduce legislation last Thursday to reverse a Copyright Royalty Board decision setting the new rates.
John L. Simson, executive director of SoundExchange in Washington, said that the Webcasters had managed to portray themselves as a grassroots collection of gritty, independent Webcasters, but the ones who would benefit most were large companies with deep pockets like AOL Radio and Clear Channel.
