x Due to a late arrival back from Washington D.C. and the breaking news in today's lead story, coverage of yesterday's SaveNetRadio.org "Hill walk" will be slightly postponed. We'll have coverage of those events in tomorrow's issue of RAIN. x

BY KURT HANSON
In a twist that greatly improves the likelihood that Congress could pass legislation in time to save Internet radio from collapsing under the burden of impossibly-high royalty rates, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), in publishing its determination in the Federal Register yesterday (.pdf here), added one word to their decision that moves the due date for payments under the new rates from May 15th to July 15th.

The original version of their decision (.pdf here) said that payments under the new rate — including a retroactive payment for the period going back to January 2006 — were due 45 days after the end of the month in which the determination was issued.  The determination was issued on March 2nd; thus the due date would have been May 15th. 

In the decision's 32-page publication in the Federal Register, a new headline referred to the publication as their "final rule" and said that payments under it were due 45 days after the end of the month in which the final rule was issued.

News of July 15th extension
arrived during conclusion of "Hill walk"
Word of the eight-week reprieve came down late afternoon yesterday, just as dozens of webcasters, independent label reps, and musicians were convening at a Mexican restaurant on Capital Hill to celebrate a successful but exhausting "Hill walk." During the "Hill walk," teams of two to five participants visited dozens of House and Senate offices to talk to staffers about the Internet radio royalties issue and ask for their support of the H.R. 2060, the "Internet Radio Equality Act" (or the upcoming Senate version thereof).

A high percentage of the House members gave verbal commitments yesterday to sign on as co-sponsors of H.R. 2060; names of those co-sponsors may be announced as early as later today.

...

... This is excellent news for Internet radio, as there seemed to be great support for the Internet Radio Equality  Act on Capital Hill, but many staffers warned us that it seemed impossible that committee hearings could be held, and  law could be passed by both houses of Congress, and the bill could be signed by the President, in time to meet a deadline that was only 14 days away. It does, however, call into question whether May 8th is still the appropriate day, from a PR point of view, for our proposed "Day of Silence" event.  We hope to evaluate that decision later today — and we welcome your input via the "Feedbox" form below. -- KH ...

From Jerry Del Colliano's "Inside Music Media" blog: "The National Association of Broadcasters has finally gotten religion.

"After months if not years of silence, the lobby group for terrestrial radio announced it is coming to the aid of Internet streamers [see coverage in yesterday's issue of RAIN]...

"Having the powerful NAB on the side of Internet broadcasters is major...

"I guess the NAB figures it owes us one. And this is a good one. And it's a good one for them.

"Desperate record labels are going to be looking for more generous compensation from everyone including terrestrial broadcasters as their business continues to tank. In other countries there is precedent for higher royalty fees. So the NAB is helping itself and its radio station members as it helps Internet broadcasters.

"When universal WiFi is available, Internet radio will be the next radio. See, another reason why the National Association of Broadcasters might want to be seen as useful to this 'fledgling' group.

"To loosely quote former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (I'm holding my nose here), you have to fight with the army you have and the army of lobbyists at the NAB is the only army Internet broadcasters have.

"Everyone has a horse in this race...Terrestrial radio because other countries collect a lot more in royalties from radio than is collected here in the U.S. It could be worse, in other words, and it is beneficial for the NAB to stand for lower royalty fees. And the NAB itself -- trade association to an industry on the decline while the next growth business is actually the one they are helping.

"Isn't unselfish cooperation a wonderful thing?"

Read Del Colliano's entire analysis in his blog, "Inside Music Media," online here.

More and more webcasters are signing on to our proposed "Day of Silence" taking place Tuesday, May 8 [read full details in RAIN here]. We're getting more webcasters joining every day — if you've e-mailed us, we'll add your name soon. Below is a growing list of webcasts that have agreed to go "dark" for the day.