Good news in the campaign to save internet radio from the RIAA-backed royalty rates, rates that will single-handedly kill thousands of small webcasters, and make internet radio far less profitable for even the largest webcasters. Ron Wyden, and Brownback of all people, have introduced the Internet Radio Equality Act which will change the royalty rates so that webcasters pay under the same model as satellite radio companies like Sirius and XM. This comes two weeks after the House version was introduced
While this legislation solves the problem of anti-competitive royalty rates, Congress should also do something about the RIAA's monopoly over all artists. You see, SoundExchange was set up to collect "performance royalties", royalties that go to the record label in addition to the song writer. Terrestrial radio does not have such royalties, although the RIAA has been lobbying Congress to create them. Unfortunately, when Congress gave SoundExchange a compulsory license to collect royalties, they were given the power to collect royalties even from artists that are not signed to an RIAA record label, or even signed by a label at all. While traditional collecting agencies such as ASCAP and BMI compete with each other, SoundExchange has been given blanket authority to collect royalties. Oh, and if you think that SondExchange has the interests of artists at heart, consider the fact that it only distributed 60% of collected royalties for the first quarter of 2006. While they argue that many of these royalties were not claimed, perhaps it's because many artists don't know that a collection agency made up of record labels that they are not part of, is collecting money in their name without telling them.