From David Oxenford's Broadcast Law Blog: "With summer and the August Congressional recess drawing to a close, will consideration of the Internet Radio controversy over royalties be on the agenda when the September legislative session begins?

"In recent weeks, there has been a settlement between DiMA, representing the largest webcasters, and SoundExchange on the issue of the minimum royalty fee (previous RAIN coverage here)...

"SoundExchange has also extended a unilateral offer to small commercial webcasters (previous RAIN coverage here)...

"These adjustments to the CRB rates may resolve some issues for some webcasters, but they leave open many other issues as set forth below — but will these tweaks to the CRB decision be enough to take the Congressional heat, in the form of the Internet Radio Equality Act, off of SoundExchange?

"What issues remain? There are still many. These include:

• The issues of the larger independent webcasters who may currently fit under the Small Webcaster Settlement ('SWSA') Act caps — but may well go over those caps before 2010, and could not afford to pay royalties at the CRB-mandated rates if they exceed the SWSA limits.

• The CRB mandated rates are themselves problematic for virtually all commercial webcasters — and DiMA made clear that the settlement of the minimum fee issue was the first step in resolving the issues that preclude a vibrant webcasting industry under the CRB rates...

• Noncommercial webcasters have not announced any settlement with SoundExchange — even though many expressed concerns over the fees for large noncommercial webcasters which will, by the end of the royalty period, increase about 9 times over the rates that they had been paying (and more for larger NPR affiliates), and over recordkeeping and reporting requirements.

• Broadcasters who stream their over-the-air signal over the Internet have not been involved in any of the tweaks to the CRB decision, nor has SoundExchange responded to the NAB's settlement offer made in June...

"And what avenues remain open to resolve these issues? In addition to the potential for renewed Congressional action in September, the webcasters are still pursuing their appeal of the decision in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (while the stay of the effective date of the CRB decision was denied by the Court, that does not affect the underlying appeal...), and most of the webcasting groups are still in settlement discussions with SoundExchange over possible settlements."

Read the entire post at the Broadcast Law Blog.

RAIN is brought to you today by:
	There's huge, and growing, demand among consumers for Internet radio (at least during the 9AM-5PM workday), as shown by the rapid growth of our AccuRadio project. AccuRadio features a variety of popular music formats that you simply can't find on the broadcast dial: Swingin' Pop Standards, Brit Rock, Piano Jazz, Broadway and more at www.AccuRadio.com.

From Forbes: "U.S. Internet advertising spending is poised to overtake radio advertising for the first time, providing a reminder that broadcasters need to be more aggressive in their embrace of online opportunities.

"U.S. radio ad spending is expected to inch up 1.5% in 2007, to $20.4 billion, short of online ad expenditures of $21.7 billion, which will be up 22% from last year, eMarketer senior analyst Ben Macklin said in a report [here].

"Over the next several years, radio station Web sites and online audio advertising 'will be the principal drivers for radio advertising growth,' Macklin said.

"But he doesn't think that growth will add up to much. He expects the sluggish radio advertising market to continue experiencing slow growth... when online ad spending is expected to surge to $44 billion...

"Consumers are spending less time listening to radio than they do surfing the Web or watching TV. In addition, only 17% of U.S. consumers consider radio the 'most' essential medium, down from 26% five years ago, according to a study released earlier this year by Arbitron and Edison Media Research [here].

"For many advertisers, the choice between radio and non-radio online ads won't be an either-or proposition... consumers often listen to the radio while consuming other media and that a mix of terrestrial radio and online ads can be far more effective than online ads alone."

Read this entire article at Forbes.com here.

From the New York Times: "In the same converted 19th-century fish market where Apple announced the European introduction of its iTunes music store three years ago, Nokia said on Wednesday that it would soon introduce its own digital music service, along with an easier-to-use Apple-style mobile interface and an Apple-style touchscreen handset.

"The Nokia Music Store, to open this year, will let users download songs from the Internet to their computers or directly to mobile phones over wireless networks, which Apple’s recently released iPhone cannot do.

"Analysts said the move heightened the rivalry between Nokia and Apple at the high end of the mobile phone business...

"In offering direct downloads,the Nokia Music Store goes beyond iTunes, which requires users to download songs to their personal computers before transferring them to an iPod music player or an iPhone...

"Nokia also introduced several phone models on Wednesday with increased storage capacity for music and other media content and said it would introduce its touchscreen phone next year.

"Nokia said it would price music downloads at 1 euro for each song, or 10 euros for each album, in the same price range as many existing mobile music services."

Read the entire article at the New York Times.

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