Attention web radio listeners! Tomorrow (June 26), thousands of webcasters will go silent or air intermittent public service announcements in an effort to curtail royalty hikes set to go into effect July 15, and draw further public attention to the growing concern regarding the broadcast medium’s existence. The initiative, led by the SaveNetRadio Coalition, which includes large webcasters such as Rhapsody, Yahoo!, and Pandora, is a reaction to the harsh March 2 ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board, which set into motion a near twofold increase in the amount of royalties required to be paid by web radio broadcasters. “The arbitrary and drastic rate increases…threaten the very livelihood of thousands of webcasters and their millions of listeners throughout the country,” said Jake Ward, a spokesperson for the SaveNetRadio Coalition.
On the Web:
savenetradio.org
Talk: Should Congress step in and prevent web radio’s potential extinction?
