It's not easy getting me to plaster a public service banner on the CPO website, but I'm fairly passionate about this particular issue. In case you don't know...

On March 2, 2007 the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which oversees sound recording royalties paid by Internet radio services, increased Internet radio's royalty burden between 300 and 1200 percent and thereby jeopardized the industry’s future.

At the request of the Recording Industry Association of America, the CRB ignored the fact that Internet radio royalties were already double what satellite radio pays, and multiplied the royalties even further. The 2005 royalty rate was 7/100 of a penny per song streamed; the 2010 rate will be 19/100 of a penny per song streamed. And for small webcasters that were able to calculate royalties as a percentage of revenue in 2005 – that option was quashed by the CRB, so small webcasters’ royalties will grow exponentially!

From the SaveNetRadio.org website.

My frustration with the backward, antiquate, self-serving mentality of the American music industry has officially peaked. Organizations like the CRB and RIAA will have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. For over a decade, the internet has proven that vastly more money can be made by allowing consumers choice and freedom than through regulation and iron-fisted control but these guys just don't get it. If the CRB ran the web we would no doubt pay a royalty fee every time we visited a site, downloaded a file or received an email - it's bullshit and I'm tired of it.

To find out more about the issue and how you can help save internet radio from a serious financial ass-kicking for doing the music industry a huge favor, visit www.SaveNetRadio.org.

Thanks for reading.