Music industry offers Internet royalty cut

The music industry offered to cut some of the new royalty fees on Internet radio broadcasters that are scheduled to take effect July 15 in a bid to end a dispute between the two sides.

Internet broadcasters would pay $2,500 per service to labels and artists regardless of how many channels they operate, SoundExchange Inc., a royalty collection arm of the industry, said. The Copyright Royalty Board had ruled that Webcasters should pay $500 per channel.

The Digital Media Assn., the group representing Web broadcasters, said SoundExchange’s offer didn’t go far enough because it applied only through 2008 and not through 2010, the term of other royalty rates.