September 18th, 2008

Webcasters are beginning to feel the pinch as royalty rates for music featured in Internet broadcasts continue to rise. Last year, the Copyright Royalty Board, a three member group appointed by the Library of Congress, announced that royalty rates for Internet broadcasts of music would increase steadily from 2006 to 2010, topping out at 0.0019 cents per song per play in 2010. Additionally, the law requires Internet broadcasters to pay retroactive royalties for 2006 and 2005. Although the royalty rate is seemingly low, amounting to less than two thousandths of a cent, Internet broadcasters such as Pandora , an ad supported Internet radio service, are struggling to survive due to the sheer volume of tracks that are broadcasted over the web each day. A recent Washington Post article reports that the increased royalty rates could consume more than 70% of Pandora's projected revenues in 2008. "The raw truth of it is that the [music royalty] rates that were published about a year ago aren't affordable for us, or for any other webcaster for that matter," Pandora founder Tim Westergren said in a recent interview with Popular Mechanics magazine.

Internet broadcasters have a right to be infuriated with the rising royalty rates imposed on them by the music industry. Although traditional radio stations are often a better promotional tool for the music industry, they are not subject the same royalties that Internet broadcasters must pay. Unlike internet broadcasters, traditional radio stations do not pay royalties for every song that they play. Traditional radio stations are only required to purchase blanket performance licenses from performing rights organizations such as ASCAP and BMI, which are significantly less costly than pay-per-play royalties.

Royalty free music from RoyaltyFreeMusic.com's music library is a smart choice for Internet broadcasters seeking to avoid rising royalty rates. All purchases from our library of royalty free music come with a direct performance license , allowing you to use music royalty free in multiple ways over the Internet. Whether you need music for websites, music for podcasts, or music for Internet radio broadcasts, you won't have to pay additional fees or royalties when you purchase music from our royalty free music library.

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