New rates set in December by the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board and collected by SoundExchange without warning eliminated a lower tier for small net broadcasters. The result is that most, including hundreds served by the now-defunct Live365, are being forced off the air. On popular webcaster, Radio Paradise, is reaching out to SoundExchange board member David Byrne for help.In an open letter to Talking Head founder and SoundExchnage board member David Byrne, Bill Goldsmith, the founder and sole DJ of net broadcaster Radio Paradise appealed for another look at new rates being charged small internet broadcasters.
Some excerpts with bold added:
"For the past 16 years, my wife Rebecca and I have run Radio Paradise, an eclectic Internet radio station with a loyal worldwide following. We've been successful enough to make the station a full-time job, and our sole means of support…As a New Yorker, you're probably familiar with WFUV and are aware of the role that they, and stations like them, play in the musical ecosystem. It's very similar to the role played by Radio Paradise and our peers. Imagine if WFUV were required to pay $0.0017 every time one listener heard one song. Let's do the math. If they have 10,000 listeners (they probably have more a good deal of the time) that's $17 per song. At 12 songs per hour, that's $204 per hour, or $4896 per day…That's exactly what Radio Paradise and other independent Internet radio stations are now expected to pay to Sound Exchange under the new CRB rates. Large operations like Pandora, Apple and Spotify can afford to negotiate private deals with the large music conglomerates. FM broadcasters can afford to lobby Congress to continue paying nothing at all to the artists that Sound Exchange represents. We have none of those options available to us. …when the CRB decision was released in December 2015 we were stunned to learn that no provisions whatsoever were made for stations like ours, and at the new CRB rates our royalty payments would approximately equal – perhaps exceed – our gross income. The same is true for every other independent web radio operator. We have reached out to Sound Exchange in the hope that some arrangement can be made that will allow stations like Radio Paradise to continue to flourish. As a Sound Exchange board member, we would very much appreciate your support.Read the full Radio Paradise letter and voice your support on Facebook here.
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