As I'm sure many are aware, the Copyright Royalty Board will be jacking up its rate structure for Internet broadcasters beginning May 15th. Without some significant change in course, this will mean the death of independent radio stations on the Internet. I'm not sure even the "big boys" like Live365 can handle the absurd pricing that the CRB is asking for, and I'm damn sure the small-timers can't, especially with the $500/year per-stream minimum.

If they stick with the current pricing (and choose to enforce it) is there any way this is not the end of independent radio on the Internet? Is that what the CRB wants, or are they just too stupid to realize that they'll lose customers big *and* small? Does this end up creating a "pirate" radio scene on the Internet with stations appearing and disappearing as they're shut down?

I have about a half dozen small streams that I listen to that I'm pretty sure won't be able to handle the increased rates. I don't know what will happen to them, but this whole situation definitely stinks. If you're in the US, you can email your congressdroids here:

http://www3.capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/home/

It seems futile, but it's worth a shot.

What happens if the broadcasters just relocate to Canada, or the Caribbean ? Is the title more a case of "RIP-only-onshore-in-the-US" ?

We need some good old-90's-fashion Internet anarchy again. Remember when big business moved to slowly to stop trends and technology on the Internet? Internet radio will hopefully learn to adapt and avoid this nonsense. Peer to peer streaming?? Encrypted streams?

There's no way to get old politicians to understand this issue and shrug off the paid influence of the music industry. The only way to survive is to work around them, and in such massive quantity that the officials notice their efforts are futile. Remember the outbreak of MP3? The industry didn't know what hit 'em. We need that again for Internet Radio.

I wonder about all the greate iTunes radio stations, which are playing every night and 18 hours a day on weekends in my house. They seem so legitimate; how could they be shut down?

I guess the big business just wants us to buy XM or Sirrius to get the vast selection we desire.

Is there a list of bands, labels, and internet radio stations which DON'T play music endorsed by this copyright board? Just like supporting non-RIAA artists, maybe we can support the independant scene here too.

To add more data, I believe that currently terrestrial radio stations pay no fee of this nature. Satellite radio stations do, but the one proposed for internet stations is supposed to be four times as much. Regardless of personal benefit, I really don't understand the reasoning behind that.

Weaker lobbying power?

You know, maybe this is just a sign that Internet Radio has been a success? Now that it's doing well, the copyright holders want a piece of the action. I'm definitely no expert on the situation though.

Yeah this is definitely a severe blow for internet radio. I think you nailed it with the "pirate radio" comment. Something will fill the void because it seems there will simply be way too many people left hanging. Still, although it sucks, for me and most of my friends its not really a significant issue because there is so much other content available. From our own massive collections to various local radio internet streams, I think there are a lot of alternatives.

The main reason it will suck is because the niche stations will go down. Where am I going to go now when I want to listen to non stop jazz -infused-down tempo-nerdcore-trance?

Lately I've been listening to a lot of stuff on the NPR website. Its pretty nice because you can go directly to a particular story AND in their music section, they have a lot of full length concerts available for download. Worth checking out.

Let's not forget that this is a US development and lovers of Internet radio will hopefully be able to get their fix from offshore sources. As one of the biggies, last.fm for instance, is not from the US.

Pandora is currentlly for US-listening only, so it sucks to be them.

You have a boss? Oh wait, I take that back; how's she doing?

HR 2060 has been introduced to nullify the fees. It has been suggested that you call your Representative to ask him or her to cosponsor the legislation.

The House bill now has 63 sponsors and there's a Senate bill now, too. Call your senators!

http://www.savenetradio.org/

The new fees will take effect this weekend and kill Internet radio in the US unless the bill is brought to a vote today. Please call your Senator and ask them to bring the Internet Radio Equality Bill to a vote.

And when you call(ed) your senator, tell them "Do what I want or I will slam you on the Internet so nobody will vote for you." That's all they care about.

Pandora==Toast

To be fair, Pandora just announced they're stopping their UK service. That means blocking access to UK IPs.

You should still be able to access Last.FM in a heartbeat though. I've never been able to access Pandora from Canada and wasn't down with subscription internet radio anyway. I use Last.FM along with a number of other resources to find new artists and music, but to tell you the truth I rarely ever listen to a radio-like stream from them or anyone else.