Home › DMW Daily › February 23, 2009

CNET: Webcasters, Music Industry Battling Over Royalties

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 23, 2009 - 8:52am.
San Francisco - CNET News.com on Monday published an account of the ongoing negotiations between webcasters and the music industry on royalty rates for streaming music on the Internet.

SoundExchange has struck streaming music royalty deals with the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), which represents large commercial broadcasters like Clear Channel, as well as with National Public Radio.

The agency, set up by record labels to collect and distribute digital royalties, has yet to strike a deal with the Digital Media Association (DiMA), which represents large webcasters like RealNetworks and Pandora.

Music industry sources told News.com that RealNetworks twice appeared to have accepted terms of an offer from SoundExchange, but then backtracked and voted against a deal.

"If SoundExchange intends to do a deal that everyone agrees to then they have to satisfy RealNetworks," Michael King, Real's associate general counsel, told News.com.

"If that's the position they choose to take, then they should do deals that we will sign up for."

 

Related Links:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10169355-93.html

Published in DMW Daily, February 23, 2009
tags: Law | Music | RealNetworks | NAB | Copyright | DiMA | SoundExchange | CRB |



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