Washington - The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) on Thursday said it has reached an agreement with SoundExchange, an entity set up by record labels to collect and distribute digital royalties, on the rates and terms that public radio stations will pay to stream music online. Under the terms, which cover the period of January 2005 through December 2010, SoundExchange will receive an upfront payment of $1.85 million, in addition to "consolidated usage and playlist reporting from CPB on behalf of the entire public radio system," FMQB.com reports.

As a result of the agreement, National Public Radio (NPR) has agreed to withdraw its appeal of the rate hike announced in 2007 by the Copyright Royalty Board; those rates were almost universally decried as being set so high as to put many webcasters out of business.

"This important agreement will ensure that the artists heard on public radio station websites will receive compensation and will enable public radio webcasters to continue to meet their public service, non-profit missions," said CPB president and CEO Pat Harrison.

"Today NPR and SoundExchange announced an agreement that will allow public radio stations to continue offering a valuable consumer service," said Jonathan Potter, executive director of the Digital Media Association -- a trade group representing webcasters.

"DiMA is continuing to negotiate with SoundExchange and we hope to reach agreement soon so that commercial webcasters -- including DiMA members Pandora, Real Networks and Live365 -- will survive and flourish."

Related Links:
http://www.fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=1108103

http://www.cpb.org

http://soundexchange.com