I’ve written about how royalties have threatened Internet radio in the past. According to this Ars Technica article, it seems like the Sound Exchange is trying to drive nails in the coffins of my favorite Internet radio stations. Ars Technica discusses the awesome-o Pandora in particular, but the disproportionally high royalty fees will affect all of the Internet radio stations I listen to, including SomaFM and Frisky Radio.
Read the rest of this entry »

From Ars Technica: Internet radio royalty rates are not going to go up as expected — at least, not yet anyway. This announcement was made during a Congressional discussion. SoundExchange, the entity responsible for collecting the increased fees, announced that they would attempt to negotiate something more reasonable with Webcasters.

The royalty increase has been a big issue to me. Not only do I listen to Internet radio for most of the day while I work from home, but one of my good friends BushPutin is employed over at Pandora. BushPutin said that Pandora did not have plans to fold up immediately on the 15th, and was still hiring and maintained their operating budgets. He was still concerned about the impact of the fee increase, and believed that Pandora would hit the proposed rate cap of 2500 stations due to Pandora’s “create-your-own” station format.

In preparation of losing some of my favorite Internet radio stations, I have been recording Frisky Radio’s stream for the last twenty six hours. Thanks to this announcement, it looks like I can give my hard drive a rest.