SoundExchange has signed agreements with at least 24 small webcasters, allowing them to continue through 2010 under the Small Webcaster Settlement Act, which sets their royalty fees at 10 or 12 percent of their revenue—10 percent of revenue if they make under 250,000 dollars and 12 percent of revenue if they make between 250,000 and 1.25 million dollars. The agreement is retroactive to January 1, 2006 and will continue through December 31, 2010 when the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) will start a new negotiation. While 24 webcasters have signed the deal, according to a statement released by SoundExchange yesterday, criticism still exists. Wired points out that the the agreement only covers artists and labels who are SoundExchange members, and that any other bands would yield the webcaster an increased rate set forth by the CRB. Randy Hodge of SomaFM wrote in his blog that many webcasters signed in fear of further lawsuits (and ultimately more fees) from SoundExchange, which is part of the RIAA and CRB. "RIAA representatives have been calling webcasters and telling them if they didn't sign by September 15th, they would be operating in violation of the law. That's the only reason they signed," he wrote. "It's like a Sopranos episode. The only way that webcasters can escape the high royalty rates is by signing this current agreement and only playing SX-affiliated label music. This means less independent music and more big label music. Which is exactly what the RIAA wanted." SoundExchange claims that more webcasters are "indicating" that they are process of signing the agreement, while others have opted not to for various reasons including their business models and webcast aggregators. Hodge urges webcasters who have already signed the agreement to contact him. Talks are still occurring following the original July 15 ruling from the CRB that would have drastically increased rates on webcasters, both big and small. The Internet Radio Equality Act, legislation that was introduced in April by Jay Inslee (D-WA), is still the ultimate goal of many stations. If approved, the CRB's original ruling would be vacated and royalty rates for Internet radio would be on par with satellite radio. www.soundexchange.com
