Submission + - CRB kills streaming Internet radio
An anonymous reader writes: The Copyright Royalty Board recently announced new rates for streaming Internet radio that require stations to pay a fee per song per listener. Streaming stations already pay 10% of their revenues to the RIAA (compare to traditional broadcast radio stations who pay nothing) but apparently this is not enough; the new fees would amount to 100%-200% of total revenues for a typical streaming station operating today. Furthermore, the fees have been made retroactive to 2006 (can they do this?) meaning that any station that has been operating over the last year would likely owe hundreds of thousands of dollars to the RIAA. Barring the negotiation of a last-minute revenue sharing agreement with the RIAA, this would make Internet radio streaming as a business model completely unsustainable. More details here.