Philadelphia Weekly

As I write this, several days before the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) makes its decision to significantly increase royalty payments to musicians for Internet radio broadcasting, the future of webcasting hangs in the balance.

As you read this, after the CRB has made its decision, webcasters large and small, commercial and noncommercial are scurrying to create sustainable business models that will ensure the future of music on the Web.

On March 2 the CRB, which oversees sound recording royalties paid by webcasters, announced a fee structure that imposed potentially catastrophic financial and reporting requirements on both commercial and noncommercial webcasters. The proposed increases--anywhere from 300 to 2,000 percent--have the potential to cripple webcasters around the world. The rates were set to take effect July 15, with increases retroactive to January of last year.

You don't have to have an MBA to understand the potentially harmful impact this would have. The rate increases would force many small web-casters to shut down.

But the shutdowns have an even more nefarious impact. In a recent Baltimore Sun editorial, singer/songwriter Sonia of the band Disappear Fear put it bluntly: "While the royalty rate increases would mean certain bankruptcy for almost every webcaster, the effect on indie artists would also be disastrous."

On June 26 thousands of webcasters shut down their Internet music streams to protest the CRB decision and to support a bill that's been in both the House and Senate: the Internet Radio Equality Act. The "Day of Silence," say industry insiders, was successful in increasing awareness about the issues.

From our position on the public broadcasting side of radio and webcasting at WXPN, my colleagues and I have argued a different take on the CRB decision: "Public matters."

Public radio operates on mission, not profits, and we believe rates for public webcasters should be different than rates for those operating commercial Internet webstreams. We operate for the public good, not commercial success. Charging public radio stations commercial rates ignores or misinterprets the financial capacities of public stations.

KCBX, a radio station based in California, states on its website that in the more than 25 years public radio has paid on-air or online music royalties, this is the first time a decision has failed to differentiate public radio from commercial media. We believe artists should get compensated for their work, but the suggested increased rates could threaten public radio's ability to connect listeners to the music.

What are the implications of all this? The proposed fee structure will significantly reduce the amount of alternative music programming provided by public radio. The rate structure is a disincentive to public radio's public service mission of bringing new, culturally enriching programming to the American public.

Public radio webcasters all across the country will be forced to make dramatic reductions in the artists and musicians they feature. And listeners will hear less.

The Day of Silence gave us a taste of this uncertain future. At 'XPN we shut down our streams, and more than 11,000 music lovers signed an online petition on our website supporting the Internet Radio Equality Act.

I heard from many disappointed listeners that day. Basically their message was: "Not having the music sucks." And it's going to suck even more for you and for the artists and for the record labels if the CRB gets its way.

What would the end of Internet radio look like? From the alternative-country band Tangleweed's perspective, not very good. According to a Chicago Tribune editorial written by band member Kenneth Rainey, a drastic reduction of services would not only stifle the technology, it would also stifle the innovation.

Independent artists currently account for less than 10 percent of what's played on terrestrial broadcast radio, but up to 37 percent of the music played on the Internet. Every day I hear from an increasing number of indie bands that tell me they've been discovered on an Internet radio station. Popular culture needs this kind of choice and availability.

If the CRB has its way, says Sonia, "online radio will start to look a whole lot more like broadcast radio: a limited number of artists, a limited number of genres and a lot of bored music fans."

Bruce Warren is program director at WXPN. He blogs at Some Velvet Blog (somevelvetblog.blogspot.com) and WXPN's All About the Music Blog (wxpn.blogspot.com). Comments on this story can be sent to letters@philadelphiaweekly.com