Sound Exchange

Internet Radio Fairness Act: Not So Fair

You may have recently received an email from Pandora and other broadcasters regarding the so-called “Internet Radio Fairness Act,” introduced by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-UT. We wanted to give you a little more information about what this bill really means. 

Digital Radio Continues Growth

When a service decides to use the statutory license that we administer, it must first file a “Notice of Use” with the Copyright Office. One of the signs of the growth in this space is that services file Notices of Use when they plan to launch service. In just the last few months, the following services have told the Copyright Office that they intend to rely on the statutory license:

Performance Rights and Digital Royalties Heat Up in Congress

Two bills are gathering attention on Capitol Hill and in the press surrounding “performance royalties,” the payments radio companies make to artists and music creators in exchange for broadcasting their songs.

Internet radio proponents are pushing the “Fair Internet Radio Royalties Act of 2012” draft legislation sponsored by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT). The bill claims to erase differences in the calculation of payments from various digital music services to performers and music creators. To do so, the legislation would reduce royalty rates for Internet radio stations to the so-called 801(b) standard, which is currently being used by only a handful of companies such as satellite radio services and certain cable music services that were grandfathered into this lower standard. In reality, the bill could drastically slash digital performance royalties to artists, labels and everyone else in the creative community participating in the digital performance revenue stream.