Today was supposed to be the day that new, stricter royalty rates for Internet radio would be enforced. The Copyright Royalty Board initially expected small Internet broadcasters to pay the same royalty rates that satellite radio broadcasters pay. Instead, a set of rules exempting smaller broadcasters from paying the new rates immediately were approved. Larger broadcasters like AOL and Yahoo are still expected to pay the new rates in full starting this week.
Wired has the full story, but here are some prominent notes:
Those organizations with numerous stations - often it's one stream per genre- have their monthly flat fee per stream capped at $50,000/year.
Small net broadcasters may be able to pay royalty fees according to the old structure until 2010, but could be slapped with fees and interest.
It's good news for now, but nothing seems certain. According to the article, the CRB can decide to enforce the stricter rules almost at anytime if it wants.
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