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Veteran entertainment and music lawyer Fred Wilhelms (pictured) takes SoundExchange's John Simson to task over Simson's public support for the CRB webcast royalty rate decision.

Wilhelms stresses that Simson is exaggerating the artist community support for the rates —and that the CRB rate will significantly harm artists, in terms of both exposure and earnings.

From CounterPunch.org: "Last night, I circulated the following letter among my clients and friends in the recording artist community....  

"It is my firm belief, shared by almost everyone not on the CRB or working for SoundExchange, that thenew rates will severely cripple Internet radio by leaving it in the hands of a small group of well-heeled players... All those great places to hear new and unusual music, and even 'niche' genres like soul, jazz, blues and folk, are in jeopardy of closing down, or moving their operations outside the U.S., where the artists won't get paid for the use of their recordings.

"That is one reason why I believe the new rates hurt artists...

"This letter is intended as the antidote to [SoundExchange Executive Director John] Simson's fevered imagination about how artists feel about  Internet radio and the new rates. While I was drafting the letter, David Byrne of the Talking Heads issued his personal rebuttal to the new rates [previous RAIN coverage here]. The group letter just makes his solo into a chorus.

"I figure I will have enough artists sign on by the end of the week to start spreading this around the Internet. I'll keep you posted.

Fred

"He'd lived the great American dream, starting a company with his wife and best friend and selling it seven years later for $160 million...

"Now he's back, as CEO and co-founder of a new digital music company, Slacker...

"Pamela Mudd, Dennis's wife and business partner, describes Slacker as 'Musicmatch  [Mudd's previous company] on steroids. It's everything Dennis wanted to do, but the  technology hadn't caught up to his ideas.' Now it has...

"'There's a lot of great Internet radio,but it's (been) stuck on the Internet or your PC,' says Mudd...

"But Mudd says he's targeting the growing audience for Internet  radio...

"Trying to sell digital devices to a consumer base that has shown its allegiance to the iPod has  proven futile for companies as diverse as Dell and Intel. Mudd isn't concerned. He doesn't see Slacker as competing directly with Apple or the Internet sites that create customized play lists based on your interests, such as Pandora, Last.fm and even Yahoo Music.

"'I'm selling a portable radio player that can store thousands of songs and get refreshed constantly,' he says. 'That's not their business.'

"Mudd plans to make money by having his Web application ad-supported, offering a $7.50 monthly ad-free premium version and profiting from the sale of the device.

"Slacker's risk is selling the concept of portable online radio to a generation of consumers who have become accustomed to on-demand music via their iPods, says David Card, an analyst at Jupiter Media."

Read the entire article at USA Today.