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New hope for webcasters, revisited

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OK, it’s on now. SoundExchange issued a press release this morning making what seemed like a helpful concession to webcasters, offering to cap the minimum fees paid by multi-channel services such as Pandora and Live365. But some advocates for webcasters suspect there’s a catch and that SoundExchange isn’t really willing to give up the negotiating leverage that the bankruptcy-inducing minimums provide.

In a statement issued minutes ago, Jon Potter, executive director of the Digital Media Assn. (the trade group representing many of the largest webcasters), said SoundExchange’s written offer was a bit less generous. That offer would cap minimum fees until 2008 only, not through 2010, the term covered by the Copyright Royalty Board’s new rates.

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Any offer that doesn’t cover the full term is simply a stay of execution for Internet radio,’ Potter said. ‘The looming 2009 billion-dollar threat is destabilizing and inhibits investment and growth. DiMA, like thousands of artists and millions of consumers, wants a solution that promotes long-term industry growth. A billion-dollar ‘minimum fee’ is equally absurd in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 or 2010. It should be eliminated – period.’

Potter went on to say that DiMA ‘would prefer to resume negotiating important issues directly with our counterparts rather than through press releases.’ That would be a first in the webcasting royalties dispute, which has been playing to Congress and the public almost nonstop since the new rates were announced.

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