Contrary to the belief of nearly everyone who has been following the webcaster royalty rate situation, webcasters will not owe SoundExchange the new, higher royalties that will put many of them out of business on May 15th. Instead, the rates will go into effect on July 15th.
The widely-embraced error could have sprung from the fact that royalties were due on May 15th in previous years. Or, more likely, it occurred because the CRB's decision wasn't considered officially public when they announced their decision on March 2nd. (If it was, the rates would have gone into effect on May 15th -- 45 days after the end of the month in which they were announced, as policy regarding these matters dictates).
However, the public was only considered to have been officiallynotified yesterday, May 1, when the Copyright Royalty Board publishedtheir decision in the Federal Register. Royalties owed under the newrates won't be due to SoundExchange until 45 days after the last day ofMay: July 15th.
The new date means that "The Internet Radio Equality Act" bill
currently gathering steam in the House of Representatives has over twomonths to pass (or not), rather than under two weeks -- a welcomedevelopment for webcasters and listeners to online radio, who wereworried about the rapidity of the process.
That bill may not be the only contendor for altering these ratesbefore these potentiall webcaster-crushing royalties are due. A littlebird tells me that a new or amended version of the bill could be comingfrom one of the Chairmen of the Congressional Judiciary Committees, PatLeahy [D-Vermont] or John Conyers [D-Michigan], and that since thosechairmen have juristiction, their bill would be far more likely to pass.
For now, though, everyone needs to take a deep breath, because May15th is not, in fact, the end of webcasting as we know it. Expectcopyright lawyers to bill a few million more hours before July 15th,
when the royalties will be due unless the rates are overturned beforethen.
