Tuesday, July 7, 2009

US online stations get royalty deal

Webcasters in the United States have secured a new deal with record labels, ending a two-year battle about royalties for online streaming.

Larger sites such as Pandora and AOL Radio will pay either 25 percent of their revenue or a fee for each song played, whichever is the biggest. The fee will increase from .08 US cent per song in 2006 to .14 cent in 2015. Smaller sites with a revenue below 1.25 million dollars will pay 12-14 percent.

In March 2007, the federal Copyright Royalty Board decided that webcasters should pay 0.19 cent a song. According to webcasters, these rates could have forced them out of business.

In the US, FM and AM broadcasters don't pay royalties, but a deal for online simulcasts was reached in February.

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