Internet radio under fire

Internet radio is under fire again. The rates for broadcasting music over the internet have gone up, and most of the music lovers who run these mom-and-pop operations won’t to be able to keep the music rolling. This piece from the San Diego Reader reports, “The rate increase also seems to be choking the life out of Live365, a popular internet radio network that offers some 260 ‘human curated’ indie stations — an international platform that showcases diverse formats …”

Gumbo Radio has been a part of the Live365 network since 2008. Bill Kraski, a Live365 listener, recently noted:

Most of [Live365’s] broadcasters are small. … But they include really good lesser known artists, who seem to be ignored by mainstream stations. …

 

Part of what allowed Live365 to do what it did was the artist royalty agreement. Until recently, small broadcasters had a different, lower royalty payment schedule. This allowed the little guys who have little or no advertising to be more competitive. In some cases, it’s the only thing that allowed them to exist. Very recently, that part of the royalty agreement was eliminated. Now, Joe Local pays the same rate as NBC or CBS, even though they have a smaller and, most likely, more niche audience. It’s a rate increase many can’t handle.

 

The change scared off some of the investors [of Live365], forcing a downsizing of staff. Live365 is actively looking for new investors. But, if they don’t regain more backing, Live365 streaming could be totally offline on January 31. …

The New York Times reports that Columbia University’s WKCR has shut down its online operation.

To use sound recordings online, most radio stations deal with SoundExchange, a nonprofit agency that handles licensing on behalf of record companies and processes payments from the stations. Under federal copyright law, online stations face stricter terms than their broadcast counterparts when it comes to programming. Online stations face limits of how many songs by any particular artist — or even from a single album — can be played in a given period of time. …

 

The suspension of WKCR’s streams appear to be one sign of confusion in the radio and streaming world since a ruling last month by the Copyright Royalty Board, a panel of federal judges who set licensing rates for Internet radio and other types of services. Some online stations have expressed concerns about the effect of the new rates on small stations. …

For more details and to sign a petition, visit SaveNetRadio 3.0.