Washington - A group of radio broadcasters including Clear Channel, and the Digital Media Association -- which represents large webcasters like Yahoo, AOL and Live365 -- have joined National Public Radio in submitting challenges to royalty rates for music webcasting set earlier this month by the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board (CRB).

Many who offer streaming music stations online have said the new higher rates could force them off the air.

The Digital Media Association (DiMA) asked that the CRB clarify a portion of the ruling that charges a minimum of $500 "per station," arguing that some of its members' services offer over 100,000 individual stations.

DiMA also wants the CRB to reinstate the ability for webcasters to pay royalties based on "aggregate tuning hours," instead of "per-performance," as many stations have not been maintaining the precise performance data that would be needed to determine how many times individual songs have been sent to individual listeners.

The broadcaster group that included Clear Channel asked the CRB to reconsider parts of its ruling, criticizing the methods the panel of judges used to calculate its royalty rates, the Associated Press reported.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2mvwdw (AP)

http://digmedia.org/content/release.cfm?id=7218&content=pr

http://tinyurl.com/25d7re (PDF: DiMA Motion for Rehearing)

http://www.loc.gov/crb