HD Radio Hits 100 Top U.S. Markets, Pays No Royalties to SoundExchange

The top 100 markets in the U.S. now have HD radio -- a digital variant of analog terrestrial radio that offers better sound, more channels, and subscription/pay-per-listen options. The HD Digital Radio Alliance's announcement included a quote from Peter Smyth, president and CEO of Greater Media, Inc. (which owns 19 AM and FM channels) about how HD radio will increase consumer choice:

"The HD Radio and HD2 multicast formats selections that the Alliance has helped to allocate will broaden the horizons of radio, enabling us to provide unique programming and compelling content, such as Deep Trax, Live Rock, Irish music and other new, exciting formats... The additional channels will also give young artists the opportunity and ability to be heard on the airwaves."

This sounds a lot like the argument
put forth by artists in support of the endangered webcasting industry, but the HD Radiochannels broadcast by terrestrial radio companies will have a bigadvantage over the online format: HD Radio stations are not required topay digital performance royalties to SoundExchange for broadcastingdigitally. Webcasters, on the other hand, will be required to pay theincreased SoundExchange fee by July 15th, unless something big happens before then.

To be fair, any subscription or on-demand content
offered HD stations will be subject to the new royalty rates. However,
the fact that a non-interactive, user-generated station on Live365 will be subject to the hefty rates while large HD radio stations broadcast sans
fee is inconsistent. The rates, as they stand today, encode a biastowards established media companies into U.S. copyright law. Hmmm, I
wonder how that happened?