SoundExchange Goes To Congress

SoundExchange

SOUNDEXCHANGE Exec. Dir. JOHN SIMSON confirmed to ALL ACCESS that he will appear before a Congressional panel to talk about its royalty offers on TUESDAY, NOV. 13th.

The appearance is in response to a letter sent by Reps. JAY INSLEE (D-WA) and Rep.DONALD MANZULLO (R-IL), to explain why the label royalty arm is willing to accept 7.5% of cable radio's revenue as a sound recording performance royalty, when it has strongly opposed an identical rate for Internet Radio, a royalty that was also proposed in APRIL's H.R. 2060, the "Internet Radio Equality Act."

"SOUNDEXCHANGE (on behalf of the recording industry) agreed that cable radio services should pay only 7.5% of revenue in sound recording royalties,"  the letter noted. "Internet radio royalties are more than five times that amount -- between 47% and 300% of revenue for the largest and smallest services, respectively. What could possibly justify multiplying royalties more than five times simply because radio programming is delivered over the Internet rather than by cable?"

« see more Net News