Internet radio stations run by nonprofits or by one person may soon be a thing of the past, if the Copyright Royalty Board has its way. Live365 is reporting that a $500 minimum fee per channel per year will be required under new CRB regualtions. With 10,000 stations playing over 250,000 artists each month, that would mean an additional $5 million per year for Live365.
The proposal “threatens Live365’s ability to help make the small webcasters’ voice heard on the Internet, by effectively forcing Live365 to raise the minimum broadcasting fees to a level that would cause most small webcasters to discontinue their service thus silencing their stations.”