Recently, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) issued the significantly higher new royalty rates for Internet radio for the 2006-2010 period. The ruling ignored webcasting community proposals and set out the SoundExchange proposed "per performance" rates (below) and a $500 minimum fee per channel per year.
For us, since we broadcast through Live365, this could mean that the future of Hardcore J and Hardcore XTRA are in jeopardy. The rates that are being proposed as driven by the recording industry will most likely put Live365 as well as many independent webcasters out of business leaving the market only open to the big names.
REC believes that people of this planet are entitled to be exposed to as many different varieties and genres of music as possible. Thanks to the internet and stations like Hardcore J and Hardcore XTRA, people half way around the world are exposed to music that would not otherwise be played through other mediums such as terrestrial and satellite radio.
For more information on what you can do to help, please see the following page at Live365:
http://www.live365.com/choice/
We will do our best to keep you up to date with developments in this ongoing story. Don't count on the mainstream media to run with this story.
Please do what you can to help.
