CRB Royalties: An Unsound Exchange

SoundExchange, the record industry body that collects royalty fees, now wants Internet streamers to trade a lower license fee (or no fee for small webcasters who qualify) and a cap on minimum fees of $50,000 per 100 channels in exchange for full compliance and paying legally.

SoundExchange's Executive Director John Simson told Radio & Internet's Kurt Hanson in a recent interview, "Our biggest desire is to have people paying legally and being compliant".

Sounds harmless enough, right? But it's a bad deal for Internet streamers -- a sorry exchange.

Just when Congress seems to be waking up to what an explosive issue&hellip