SoundExchange's executive director Jon Simson said yesterday, "For the [webcasters] who want to comply with the law and are in bona fidenegotiations with us, we don't want those people to be intimidated.
And we don't want them to stop streaming. That's just so long as they're continuing to pay under the license they had."
There's been confusion in the webcasting community about what this means for webcasters that were not party to the CRB or congressional hearings (as in, not part of the "bona fide negotiations").
Here's the deal, according to SoundExchange. Payments under the new rates are legally due on Monday, but no lawsuits are going to be meted out on that day for webcasters who do not pay, as negotiations continue. Fees that are not negotiated away will still be due retroactively -- plus interest.
Small webcasters who are in compliance with SoundExchange's reporting requirements could continue to pay the same fees that they currently do -- but only if small webcaster rates remain the same as they were under the Small Webcaster Settlement Act of 2002 (10 percent of gross revenue up to $250,000 or 12 percent of gross revenue above that amount). This deal, which seems likely, would be good until 2010.
Large webcasters face a different challenge. The good news for them is that minimum per-station fees are capped at $50,000, saving Pandora and other personalized radio services from paying out billion dollar fees. However, for large webcasters, SoundExchange is not negotiating the royalty rates set by the CRB for each song played to each listener.
