BY PAUL MALONEY
The pile in the "IN Box" at the U.S. Court of Appeals in DC grew as parties from both sides of the webcasting royalty issue submitted their "intents to appeal" the Librarian of Congress's decision on webcasting music royalties by yesterday's deadline.

While most petitioners planning to appeal the Librarian's ruling would argue the royalty rates as set are so high as to make webcasting financially unfeasible, according to a statement on their website, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced an intent to file a petition as well -- arguing that webcast royalty rates were set improperly low.

The RIAA claims the Librarian was "duped" by Yahoo!'s "self-serving" testimony which mischaracterized their business model, and that the CARP improperly dismissed 140 licensing agreements which the recording industry group insists represented fair market deals.

While the CARP characterized Yahoo! as largely an aggregator of other broadcast and webcast streams, the RIAA argues that since the company's acquisition of Launch and subsequent intent to drop broadcasters' streams, it's now committing "significant resources to Internet radio." The RIAA accuses Yahoo! of downplaying its plans for Internet-only radio to drive down the rate -- the rate upon which the statutory was later based.

Moreover, the recording industry also claims the royalty rate would have been set much higher had arbitrators considered the 25 agreements the RIAA had made with webcasters, and the 115 deals made between webcasters and individual labels.

"The end result significantly undervalued the music used by Internet radio companies,” said RIAA Chairman Hilary Rosen in the statement.

A joint petition of intent to appeal was filed by broadcasters Salem Communications and the National Religious Broadcasters Music License Committee, through the law firm of Wiley Rein & Fielding LLP. This was apparently the extent of the action taken by commercial broadcasters, however, as the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), as reported yesterday, refrained from filing an intent. Major broadcasters like Clear Channel also did not file.

As reported in the late edition of RAIN (here), a group of 19 independent commercial webcasters, led by RadioIO.com, Live365.com, and Radio Free Virgin, submitted a joint appeal intent with the Court yesterday. The Intercollegiate Broadcasting Association (IBS), on behalf of its 700+ noncommercial education member stations, had filed its appeal notice July 8, the very day the Librarian's ruling was published in the Federal Register.

Yesterday was the deadline for interested parties to notify the Court of their intent to appeal the royalty. Briefs are to be filed later this year.



From the press release: "Yesterday, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and webcasters appealed the Librarian of Congress' May 2nd 2002 decision on webcasting rates. The RIAA argues that the CARP's originally proposed rates should stand, while webcasters argue that both decisions are unfair.

"In response to this move, US Rep. Jay Inslee said the following: 'The fact that all parties have appealed this decision demonstrates clearly that the standard used to determine royalty rates is not working, and Congress must act expeditiously to correct it.

"'If the RIAA's preference for the original Carp's decision prevails, it could severely dampen the growth of the Internet as a medium for music broadcasting. Internet radio is the only broadcast medium that artists have to receive compensation for their work. Undermining Internet radio, which is what prohibitively high royalty rates would do, is shortsighted and bad for the artists, bad for consumers, bad for webcasters, and even bad for the labels.

"'Congress erred when it created the "willing buyer-willing seller" standard for determining rates, and we will continue our work to change the standard and ensure that we have a "fair but not free" Internet royalty rate.'"

Radio & Records is reporting that a political consulting group has made a deal with the producers and voice talent union for a special rate for streaming "candidate and issue-advocacy political ads" originally made for broadcast radio.

The special rate negotiated by The American Association of Political Consultants and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), 33% above regular fees, is markedly lower than the regular AFTRA rate of 300% of normal fees for other broadcast spots that end up in an Internet stream.

In April of 2001, hundreds of broadcasters shut down their Internet streams when they learned AFTRA talent was due three times their normal rates if broadcast commercials in which they appeared wound up in Internet streams. Only after the incorporation of various ad "blocking" or "replacement" technologies did the broadcasters slowly return to streaming.

Garageband.com, the web-based resource for unsigned artists which was shuttered earlier this year, has returned -- along with its online streaming service Garageband Radio.

In April, a group led by dedicated employees, musicians, and site enthusiasts purchased the Garageband assets to relaunch the site after its founders (which included Talking Head Jerry Harrison) were unable to find capital and a distribution deal for some of the collective's more successful artists.

Unsigned artists upload their recorded material to the site, where it becomes available for listening by registered users. These users can then rate and review the music. The most popular artists "are invited to become a Garageband Records Artist and work with Garageband to forward their careers."

One way for site users to discover this new music is by using the Garageband Radio service. It consists of 16-format focused streaming radio channels, plus the Featured Artist Radio channel which spotlights particular bands. Garageband Radio is streamed in Real format.

From CNet News.com: "AdCritic.com, an advertising-focused Web site bulldozed in the dot-com bust, has reemerged under new ownership and with a new formula for success: subscriptions only.

"The Web site, an industry news publisher and hub for TV and radio commercials, closed late last year. As the audience for its free, streamed media grew, the costs to support the necessary bandwidth caused the project to fold, said its founder, Peter Beckman...

"The introductory annual rate for AdCritic.com is $69.95...The site features a new commercial daily, breaking industry news, and a searchable archive of TV and radio spots.

"The former site hosted a vast library of advertising video clips, including about 2,500 commercials. Before its demise, it drew a diverse crowd of ad junkies to its video library, delivering any where from 10 million to 30 million commercial video streams per month. It also pulled in regular visits from advertising executives, although they made up only a fraction of the site's audience."

Read this entire story here.

... Here is a growing list of webcasters who, because they don't feel they can manage webcasting royalties in a viable business, have decided that it's in their best interests to silence their streams. (We thank them for their hard work and dedication to their audiences and the industry, and wish them luck in their future endeavors...)
All80s.com	AudioCandy.com	BlueMars.org
BrazilCast 1 & 2	Celtic Heritage Webradio	Chez Whitey
Entercom stations	Good Time Oldies Radio	Greater Media stations
GrrlRadio	HitRadio.biz	Hot Hit Radio
IdahosCast.com	KDFC/San Francisco	KEOM/Mesquite
KGRK/Cedar Falls	KKDV/San Francisco	KKNX/Eugene
KKNG/Oklahoma City	KKPT/Little Rock	KKUP/Cupertino
KMGO/Centerville	KOIT/San Francisco	KPIG/Freedom
KTPW/Dallas	KTRS/St. Louis	KTXN/Victoria
KWXY/Cathedral City	Lotus Radio stations	McClure stations
Midwest Family stations	Minion Radio	MonkeyRadio.org
MoreMusicRadio.net	MYNDFK.com	NetRockRadio.com
NextMedia stations	OnTheCorner.fm	Perkigoth.com
PissMonkey	Powerrocks.com	Progrock.com
Psychedelic Time Warp	Pulverradio.com	RadioBoston.com
RadioCentral.com	Radio Free Akron	Radio Free BD
Radio Free Tiny Pineapple	ReggaeTrain.com	RKNA: Aural Arcana
SavageRockRadio.com	Simmons Media stations	SomaFM.com
StarDogRadio.com	TagsTrance.com
The City Radio	therockfm.com
TheVoice	The Zoo	UCLARadio.com
WAAF/Worcester	Waitt Radio Network	WCKW/La Place
WellsRadio.net	WEST/Easton	WGQR/Elizabethtown
WLUP/Chicago	WMHB/Waterville	WMMR/Philadelphia
WOVRadio.com	WRLT/Nashville	WRVG/Georgetown
WSBF/Clemson	WYYB/Phoenix	Yahoo! Radio stations
Have we missed others? Use the feedback form above or e-mail us here.