Congress May Save Net Radio

There may be some good news on the Internet Radio front, which is facing potentially catastrophic increases in royalties fees. (See this earlier post for more on how services like Pandora are affected). But on Thursday, a bill was introduced in the US Congress that seeks to reverse the earlier decision.

From PC World:

U.S. Reps. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) and Don Manzullo (R-Ill.) filed the legislation Thursday. The bill reverses a recent decision of the federal Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) to nearly triple the amount of royalties Internet radio broadcasters pay to copyright holders for playing a song.

The Copyright Royalty Board earlier this month approved a rule that would force commercial Internet radio stations, regardless of their size, to pay a new, higher flat fee to the record labels each time a song is played. Royalty rates for Web-casters - starting retroactively at $0.0008 per song in 2006 will climb to $0.0019 per song in 2010. As it stands now, the rates will go into effect May 15.

Here's the link to the story.:

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Pandora, Internet Radio