Live365 Decries Webcasting Rate Deal; Submits Own Proposal

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 9, 2009 - 10:42am.

Foster City, Calif. - Live365, a provider of "microwebcasting" services that power Web radio stations from over 5,000 users, said on Thursday that the royalty rate deal announced this week by SoundExchange will have detrimental effects to its business, and submitted its own rate proposal to the agency.

"This deal once again focuses only on a handful of major webcasters, those that are capable of earning more than $1.25M annually," the company said in a statement, noting that its user-created stations "will never reach even 2% of the revenue and listening limits set in this 'pureplay' deal."

Additionally, the SoundExchange deal calls for an annual $25,000 upfront payment from all webcasters, "a fee greater than these microwebcasters can earn with their niche audiences and very limited listening," Live 365 said.

"The unintended effect of these high hurdles on tens of thousands of microwebcasters will be an inevitable increase in piracy, going around the rules by just not filing with the Copyright office."

Live365 said that it has submitted an alternative rate proposal to SoundExchange.

The company says its proposal "not only provides these microwebcasters the same reduced rates as offered to much larger players, but also leverages webcasting service aggregators like Live365 and others to assist SoundExchange with the administration, royalty collection and payment, full census reporting, and compliance for tens of thousands of these tiny stations."

Related Links:
http://www.live365.com

http://snipurl.com/mgi6l (DMW previous coverage)

Published in DMW Daily, July 9, 2009

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My favourite feeds

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