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.

Both the House and the Senate have now approved the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008, which will become law when it is signed by the President. Just what does this bill do? It does not announce a settlement of the contentious Internet Radio royalty dispute, about which we have extensively written here. It does not change the standard for judging Internet radio royalties, as had been proposed in the Internet Radio Equality Act, introduced last year and now seemingly dead in the waning days of this Congress, and in the Perform Act, about which we wrote here (the IREA and the Perform Act proposed different standards – the first more favorable to webcasters and the second more favorable to SoundExchange).

Washington - The rate that digital retailers like Apple's (NASD: AAPL) iTunes must pay songwriters and music publishers will stay the same under a decision handed down Thursday by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which rejected the publishers' petition for a 66% rate hike. The decision to freeze royalty rates at 9 cents per song for songwriters and music publishers comes as it was revealed this week by Fortune magazine, that Apple said in a letter sent to the CRB last year it might shutter its iTunes music store should it have to incur any increase in music royalties that would make the store unprofitable.

Washington - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday approved the Webcaster Settlement Act, which passed in the House over the weekend and was introduced to allow webcasters to continue to negotiate new royalty agreements with copyright owners while Congress is busy with the elections. "This legislation will enable the Digital Media Association (DiMA) and our member companies, and all Internet radio services, to continue negotiating royalty rates with SoundExchange for the years 2006-2015. We are very hopeful of reaching agreement soon, and thereby creating long-term stability that will re-energize the Internet radio business," said DiMA executive director Jonathan Potter.

Washington - The major record labels, music publishers and large webcasters on Tuesday announced a breakthrough agreement on royalty payments for interactive streaming and limited digital downloads, which will for the first time see mechanical royalty payments on these services. Under the agreement, which was submitted as draft regulations to the Copyright Royalty Board, providers of limited download and interactive streaming services -- including subscription and ad-supported services -- will generally pay a mechanical royalty of 10.5% of revenue, with minimum payments in certain circumstances.

Washington - The Digital Media Association (DiMA), a trade group that represents webcasters and online retailers like Apple and Amazon, on Friday asked a federal court to rule that online retailers' use of 30-second music preview clips are "fair use," and not subject to royalty payments.

New York - The major players in contentious negotiations over digital music royalties, which pit music publishers, record labels and digital music services against one another, have reached a settlement on two of five major issues, Billboard reported, citing an account from David Israelite, president and CEO of the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA).

New York - A federal judge in New York has created a formula for calculating the royalties that large webcasters AOL (NYSE: TWX), RealNetworks (NASD: RNWK) and Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) must pay songwriters and music publishers for streaming their songs between 2002 and 2009, which could provide just one performing rights organization, ASCAP, as much as $100 million in payments. U.S. District Judge William Conner's ruling stipulates that the webcasters must pay 2.5% of music-related revenue to ASCAP's 320,000 members; by that math, for 2006, AOL owes $5.95 million, and Yahoo owes $6.76 million.

Washington - Several members of the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) on Wednesday filed a class action copyright infringement lawsuit against MediaNet, a company that powers digital music services for Microsoft, Yahoo, MTV and others, claiming they failed to obtain proper licenses for use of songwriters' and publishers' works.

Washington - The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) began hearing arguments from music publishers, record labels, and digital music distributors on Monday, on how much songwriters and music publishers should be paid when music is streamed or downloaded, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Washington - The Digital Media Association (DiMA), which represents the interests of large webcasters including AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo, has hired Greg Barnes, former senior counsel to House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, to become the association's legislative counsel and director of government affairs. "We look forward to having Greg on board as we continue to help digital media companies achieve a regulatory and business environment that supports industry growth, creative and technological innovation and greater consumer enjoyment of digital content," DiMA executive director Jonathan Potter.

Washington - The Digital Media Association (DiMA), which represents large webcasters like Yahoo, (NASD: YHOO) AOL (NYSE: TWX) and Microsoft (NASD: MSFT), has filed a brief asking the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) to refer the question of whether or not an interactive music stream needs a separate "reproduction" license, in addition to the performance license they already pay, to the U.S. Copyright Office, Billboard reported. "Digital music services believe that digital performances are like radio and should require a performance license only," DiMA said in a statement, referring to the license that both webcasters and radio broadcasters pay to performing rights organizations ASCAP, BMI and SESAC.

Washington - Large Internet radio purveyors AOL (NYSE: TWX), Yahoo (NASD: YHOO), RealNetworks (NASD: RNWK), Pandora and Live365 earlier this week sent a letter to key lawmakers in Washington, asking them to consider performance royalty parity for broadcast, satellite, cable and Internet radio. The letter was addressed to U.S. House Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chairman Howard Berman (D-Calif.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), whose committees are currently re-evaluating the broadcast radio industry's royalty rate exemption.