Petteri Pyyny
4 Jun 2003 8:01
In a long fight over the royalty rates for webcasting (or audio streaming, however you want to call it) in the U.S., it finally seems that all parties have reached an agreement. Final obstacle was with the non-commercial college radio stations and they have now reached an agreement with RIAA.
Under the agreement, college radio stations pay a flat fee of $250 a year, applied retroactively from 1998. The fee will remain on this level until end of 2004 when the royalty rates need to be negotiated again. Other non-commercial Net radio stations reached an agreement earlier, paying $400 a year -- also retroactively from 1998 and until end of 2004.
The royalty rate debate has been a hot potatoe to the rather new industry, specially when the royalty rates originally were proposed. The original rates, stations said, would have killed virtually all hobbyist from the industry. Since then, there have been rulings, overrulings, back-stabbing, secret private deals and finally something that looks like a consensus over the rates.
Small, commercial webcasters pay a flat fee of $500 a year for their streaming rights and the bigger players pay appx. $0.01 per hour per listener.
Source: Reuters via MSNBC