shouting loudly

Copyright Royalty Board denies net radio appeal

As mourned by the Consumerist, the Copyright Royalty Board has denied an appeal, backed by NPR and other webcasters, to rehear their recent rate increase. The decision nearly triples internet radio royalty rates by 2010–including a retroactive increase effective for 2006.

Last month, SoundExchange Executive Director John Simson recently confessed to The Washington Post what we all suspect, that the music industry is hoping for a smaller number of internet radio stations, each with larger audiences:

“Is 10,000 stations the right number?” asks Simson of SoundExchange, which sought the higher royalties. “Does having so many Web stations disperse the market so much that it hurts the artist? What’s the right number of stations? Is it 5,000? Is it less? Are artists better off having hundreds of listeners on lots of little stations, or thousands of listeners on larger stations?”

And still, entertainment industry slicks like Dean Garfield have the gall to claim that copyright holders don’t attack new technologies. Ha!