SoundExchange: There's No Deal on Minimum Per-Station Caps

SoundExchange recently notified us that DiMA‘s announcement of a deal between webcasters and SoundExchange regarding the minimum per-station fees was false. According to Richard Ades, a SoundExchange spokesman, "Your report [link] that there is an agreement on the minimum fee cap for large webcasters is not accurate. There is no agreement yet. The DIMA letter […]

SoundexchangeSoundExchange recently notified us that DiMA's announcement of a deal between webcasters and SoundExchange regarding the minimum per-station fees was false. According to Richard Ades, a SoundExchange spokesman,

"Your report [link] that there is an agreement on the minimum fee cap for large webcasters is not accurate. There is no agreement yet.
The DIMA letter that was conveyed late Friday night and released to thepress does not accurately represent the terms offered by SoundExchange.

Here's what DiMA had said about the terms:

"Late yesterday, the Digital Media Association confirmed in aletter to SoundExchange that it would accept SoundExchange's offer to capa $500 per channel minimum fee at $50,000 annually through 2010, for the fulllength of the term."

Interesting. I've contacted bothsides to try to find out what's going on with these fees (that would,
in their current form, knock Pandora and other webcasters with lots ofstreams offline immediately), and will hopefully have more to post about thenegotiations, which are apparently still ongoing, soon.

Update: It's worth noting that whatever happens with these negotiations between SoundExchange and webcasters, only the Copyright Royalty Board or Congress has the legal authority to set new rates. Any agreement that might eventually be signed by SoundExchange and webcasters would have to be factored into a Congressional bill or a new CRB decision.