Industry News

The Copyright Royalty Board has  released the rates for 2011 through 2015 for those webcasters not covered by last year's Webcaster Settlement Act agreements. The rates are currently set at $0.0019 per performance per performance in 2010 and will remain unchanged until 2012. 

The CRB rejected Live365's proposed rates of $0.0009 per performance as well as SoundExchange's proposed rates of $0.0021 beginning in 2011 and rising to $0.0029 in 2015. Live365 did not opt into the settlement agreements and chose instead to litigate.

The rates through 2015 are:

-- 2011: $0.0019 per performance

-- 2012: $0.0021 per performance

-- 2013: $0.0021 per performance

-- 2014: $0.0023 per performance

-- 2015: $0.0023 per performance

(A "per performance" rate means the royalty is paid for a song played to one listener . So, if a webcaster streams 1,000 songs, the total royalty using the 2011 rate would be $0.0019 x 1,000 = $1.90.) 

There are many other details in the CRB's decision (such as rates for noncommercial webcasters and broadcasters who did not opt into the settlement). Read more at a helpful blog post at Broadcast Law Blog.

Many webcasters, including market-leading Pandora, have already accepted the lower rates from a settlement with SoundExchange. Compared to the recently announced rates, the rates reached in the settlement are lower in the early part of this time period ($0.0016 in 2011 and $0.0017 in 2012) and higher in later year ($0.0023 in 2014 and $0.0025 in 2015).