Webcaster's Worry: What Happens After 2010?

Ari Shohat, founder and manager of webcaster Digitally Imported (di.fm, sky.fm) responded to the news about webcasters not owing the new royalties on Monday with a new angle. Regardless of where the various involved parties stand on webcaster royalty rates, all of them are talking about the same time period: 2006 to 2010.

Even if new rates are set that work for webcasters and SoundExchange alike, the end of that term will present another clean slate and another round of negotiating, leading to uncertainty about whether webcasters that thrive from 2006 to 2010 will be driven offline once the upcoming term is over.

Shohat wrote,

"To me one of the biggest issues that people hardly mention or understand is that even if the previous agreement is extended in some way until 2010, that still is only a reprieve. We net radio operators are increasingly frustrated when our businesses or full-time hobbies are constantly on a life-line, with absolutely no guarantee of renewal after the next term.

"Even if something is settled now, all bets are off in 2010, and we're back to square one, and back to spending a fortune on legal. Meantime, the pool of investors, or companies willing to work with us long term is shrinking as they think our business cannot be relied on. And they are right. What other business do you know of where the operator doesn't know if they will be allowed to operate like before every 5 years?

"The sad story behind the scenes is that a lot of talented and passionate people are not getting into this business, new technologies aren't springing up as fast, and the existing people are considering of doing something else for a living."