The original rates were based on a “per play” model and went back retroactively to the beginning of 2006. They started at $.0008 per performance and went up gradually to $.0019 per performance in 2010. They defined a performance as the streaming of one single song to one single listener on the Net – thus if a channel has 500 listeners at any one time it racks up 500 “performances.” The minimum fee was $500 per channel per year, and that was also the fee for the noncommercial Webcasters – the largest percentage – unless they had more than 159,140 “aggregate tuning hours” per month. Once they passed that they would pay the commercial rate. Most webcasters have little or no revenue coming in from website advertising, so the royalty demand borders on the absurd and would silence most stations except for those of the biggest corporations. There was even talk of some stations relocating to Canada where the royalty obligation would more reasonable.
SoundExchange said it would extend the royalty rates for small webcasters until 2011, but most stations have turned that down seeing that it only postpones their doomsday. Commercial broadcasters have been represented by the Digital Media Association (DiMA), which made an agreement with the CRB to put a cap on the $500 per-channel minimum part of the rate structure, but no agreement has been made between the DiMA and SoundExchange on royalty rates to be paid. However, SoundExchange did publicly acknowledge that the recording royalty rates originally set by the CRB on March 2nd were too high for most webcasters to stay in business, grow and succeed. Things are still very much up in the air. A bill titled “The Internet Radio Equality Act” is in both the House and Senate now to overturn the CRB “per play” rates and instead establish a fair “percent of revenue” test for all webcasters. SoundExchange allies are fighting it and it seems to be stuck in committee at present. For current news on this, Go Here.
DGG Opens Their Own Web Shop – Deutsche Grammophon – a division of the world’s largest music company, Universal Music Group – is now making the majority of its huge catalog available online for paid download with the launch tomorrow of DG Web Shop [www.dgwebshop.com] Online consumers in 40 countries will be able to download music at the highest technical and artistic standards. About 2500 DGG albums will be available in maximum MP3 quality of 320 kbps – which exceeds the industry download standard of 128 kbps and even the 256 kbps used by EMI on iTunes. (But multichannel options are not offered at this time.)
Among the highlights of the DGG Web Shop are almost 600 albums no longer available as physical CDs, with more out-of-print titles to follow. The goal is to digitize all the great DGG recordings to make this treasure of music history always available. Users may select entire albums, collections of albums and box-sets, as well as individual movements or complete works. All tracks are available for sale regardless of length. Either U.S. dollars or euros will be accepted in purchase, depending on the customer’s residence. All titles will be offered without DRM, and thus will be compatible with all portable music players and burnable to CD. Music lovers without downloading experience will find a user-friendly three-click process in loading the music to their PC and MP3 player. The shop will be a well-rounded music boutique, with news, e-booklets, promotional videos, tour dates and information on composers, their works, recordings, and DGG artists. Price Waterhouse Cooper has predicted that paid digital downloading will triple between now and 2010.
