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 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 U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed the Webcaster Settlement Act on Saturday, which would allow webcasters and copyright holders to continue to negotiate royalty payments for streaming music online after Congress suspends its routine business after this week for the elections. A Senate vote on the measure is expected today or yet this week.

Oakland, Calif. - Streaming Web radio service Pandora, which claims about 1 million daily users, says that the recent doubling of royalty payments it must pay to copyright holders may soon force the company to turn off its streams, co-founder Tim Westergren told the Washington Post. "We're approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision," said Westergren.

The appeals of last year's Copyright Royalty Board decision on the royalties paid for the use of sound recordings by Internet radio stations continue on, and one recent filing raises interesting questions of whether or not the CRB was properly appointed. Last week, the Department of Justice, which represents the CRB in defending its decision in the Court of Appeals, filed its brief in opposition to the briefs of the webcasters, which we summarized here. The DOJ brief essentially argued that the webcasters' briefs were insufficient to satisfy the requirement for a successful appeal - that the CRB decision was arbitrary and capricious or otherwise contrary to law.

Under the compulsory license for the use of sound recordings - the license which allows Internet radio services to use all legally recorded sound recordings by paying a royalty set by the Copyright Royalty Board - the designated collection agency can, once each year, audit a licensee to assess its compliance with the royalty requirements. Under the law, when the collective decides to audit a company, it must notify the Copyright Royalty Board, who then gives public notice of the fact that an audit is to take place. The Copyright Royalty Board has just announced that SoundExchange has decided to audit Last.FM.

New York - Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) and AOL (NYSE: TW) may shutter their Internet radio services, facing a 38% increase in music royalties at the hands of the Copyright Royalty Board, Bloomberg reports. "We're not going to stay in the business if cost is more than we make long term," Yahoo Music general manager Ian Rogers told Bloomberg. Echoing the same tone, AOL Radio managing director Lisa Namerow told Bloomberg, "If the rates remain as they are, it would be very challenging to sustain a business that is profitable."

Washington - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has released a briefing schedule for the appeal of webcasting royalty rates filed by various webcasters, which will begin in February but is not likely to be resolved until sometime in 2009, according to the Broadcast Law blog.

San Francisco - New York Senator and presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton expressed support for continued negotiations between webcasters and SoundExchange over royalty rates for streaming music online, in an e-mail reply sent to constituents who queried her on the issue, Wired News reported. "I will continue to monitor this situation with the hope that they produce a fair and equitable resolution for all sides," reads the e-mail from Clinton, published in full on Wired.com. "Please be assured that I will continue to follow this issue closely and that I will keep your views in mind in the future as the situation plays out."

Washington - SoundExchange, the music industry entity that collects and distributes digital royalties, announced yesterday that 24 small webcasters have signed an agreement that would extend the "below-market" music royalty rates they have received since 1998 through the year 2010.

New York - Some involved in the prickly royalty negotiations between music webcasters and the major record labels believe that issues could be resolved as early as the end of September, the Associated Press reported.

New York - The Digital Media Association (DiMA) -- which represents large webcasters like AOL, Yahoo, RealNetworks, Live365 and Pandora -- announced on Thursday that it has reached agreements with SoundExchange on several thorny issues related to the disputed royalty rates for streaming music online.

Washington - SoundExchange, the entity set up by the record labels to collect and distribute digital music royalties, announced on Wednesday that it has offered small webcasters a discounted rate through 2010, under essentially the same terms set out in the Small Webcaster Settlement Act.

Washington - The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) this week announced its support for the Internet Radio Equality Act, a bipartisan House bill that would vacate the recent music webcasting royalty rate hike.