Internet radio broadcasters may have suffered a significant setback with the recent ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the postponement of the royalties hike that's to take effect this Sunday, July 15th.
With the new royalties requirements, Internet radio broadcasters will have to pay a flat fee per song streamed, on a per-user basis, in addition to a $500-per-channel annual fee. What's worse, the new requirements are effective in a retroactive manner, going back to January 2006, and are set to double by 2011. The appeal was initiated by a large group of Internet radio broadcasters, which was led by National Public Radio (NPR) and gained awareness with SaveNetRadio's ongoing efforts.
The music licensing company SoundExchange has attempted a truce between the Copyright Review Board and the coalition of Internet radio broadcasters on several occasions, to no avail
Several, including SonicLiving, have leveraged their own online communities to help support the court battles as well, while others called for a Day of Silence to raise awareness to the plight of Internet radio broadcasters.