BY DANIEL MCSWAIN
SoundExchange has signed settlement offers with an undisclosed number of small webcasters, according to statements made today by Executive Director John Simson at the Future of Music Policy Summit in Washington D.C.

Simson also said that the organization will formally announce the development later this week.

The announcement will come after the previously announced September 14 deadline for interested small webcasters to accept SoundExchange's offer.

Speaking on a panel titled "Performance Right: Who gets paid when songs are played on the radio?", Simson was joined by fellow SoundExchange boardmember Patricia Polach and moderated by Future of Music Coalition and SoundExchange board member Walter McDonough.

Gigi Sohn, director of Public Knowledge and a participant on the same panel, later asked Simson exactly how many webcasters had accepted SoundExchange's proposal. Simson responded that last year there were about 50 webcasters paying rates set by the Small Webcasters Settlement Act, but declined to give a number of webcasters who have accepted SoundExchange's current offer.

Sohn responded, "Since the Copyright Royalty Board decision, you'd think that many [webcasters] would rush to settle."

Sohn, who acknowledged the long standing disagreements between her organization and the record industry at-large and noted that her position was not shared by Public Knowledge, spoke in defense of implementing a sound performance royalty.

"There are some folks that think the time is absolutely now to push the performance royalty bill, because the broadcasters have their hands completely full," Sohn said. Sohn later qualified her position by stating that, "any new performance fee should offset the rise in royalties for small webcasters."

Sean Murphy, treasurer of the Princeton Broadcasting Service, spoke in favor of seeing a performance royalty for sound recordings, but noted that it would have to be "a reasonable rate with reasonable record keeping conditions." Murphy also said that ideally, the collection agency's duties would be to simply collect and administer royalties, and would refrain from participating in lobbying activities.

Murphy described a reasonable rate for broadcasters as being similar to the rate paid to songwriter royalty organizations like ASCAP and BMI.

The afternoon's keynote address was delivered by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), and focused on broadcast radio regulation as well as the importance of the "Net neutrality" debate to foster growth and creativity online.

Register of Copyrights in the U.S. Copyright Office Marybeth Peters also spoke, a conversation which RAIN will cover in more detail in tomorrow's issue.

Additional coverage tomorrow will include more highlights from Day One of the Future of Music Policy Summit, as well as coverage of the keynote address to be delivered by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), one of the original co-sponsors of the Internet Radio Equality Act bill currently in the Senate.

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