This a guest editorial by Mark Lam, CEO, Live365, the most important platform on the web for streaming internet radio. The Inland Echo's own internet radio station is powered by Live365. A sign-up link is provided below to join the service.
As you may have heard, Congress passed a bill called the "Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008" that would authorize SoundExchange to continue negotiating royalty rates with the ultimate objective of codifying the negotiated rates and making them applicable for all artists, whether they registered with SoundExchange or not. It basically gives us a window of opportunity to negotiate lower royalty rates for small webcasters.
For over a year now, Live365 has been advocating for a sensible, win-win solution to allow small webcasters to band together under an umbrella aggregator service, pay royalties at SoundExchange's small webcasters rates, and guarantee a single, aggregate minimum payment on behalf of the small webcasters. Aggregators, like Live365, would take care of registration, monitoring, reporting, collection--just as it is now--while guaranteeing a single aggregator minimum payment in lieu of individual minimums.
The good news is that SoundExchange has invited a proposal from us detailing this Aggregator concept and has offered to meet with us in the coming weeks. You can help us by spreading the word to artists and labels that you know so that we can build a long list of supporters. Please forward this email and sign-up link to all artists and labels you know who may want to support the aggregator proposal.
We will continue to strive for a fair royalty deal for small webcasters!
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}