Even though a $700 billion bailout agreement is the most important issue facing Congress at the moment, United States representatives also have to think about legislation that would give the RIAA and webcasters additional time to work out a fair royalty agreement.
In the latest chapter of an already confusing mess, Pandora founder Tim Westergren sent out an e-mail request Friday afternoon to all Pandora users.
The e-mail reads as follows:
After months of fighting to stay in business, Pandora, SoundExchange and the RIAA have finally agreed to one thing - we need just a bit more time to negotiate a royalty agreement that will let Pandora survive. Yesterday Congressman Jay Inslee and several cosponsors introduced legislation to give us extra time but for some reason the traditional radio broadcasters don't want Congress to help Pandora and the rest of Internet radio.
We understand that the National Association of Broadcasters is asking Members of Congress to oppose the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008.
Please call your Congressperson right now and ask them to support H.R. 7084, the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008.
To see who your local reprsentative is, please click here. CDFreaks would like to remind interested readers that they can call any time over the weekend, as Congress is in session working on the bailout.
Webcasters support H.R. 7084, which would give them more time to work with the RIAA to iron out royalty rates for sites like Pandora, but the National Association of Broadcasters is working to have H.R. 7084 eliminated.
Along with Pandora and other webcasters, the Digital Media Organization (DiMA), SoundExchange, and the RIAA also are in support of the bill. Pandora has been trying to work with the RIAA and SoundExchange, as the popular web site faces imminent doom in 2010 due to RIAA royalty rate changes.
"Broadcast radio, seeing the first concrete sign of progress in the webcaster/soundexchange negotiation, jumped out of the tall grass to sabotage," Westergren told CDFreaks. They've been silent on the CRB issue from the beginning -- now we know why. They're hoping high rates will knock out webcasters who are becoming the first true competition for their listeners. This is an old, entrenched business trying to suffocate innovation by using their incumbent power in D.C."
Although NAB has remained silent regarding their distaste of the bill, it's plausible that the organization is worried about increased competition from increased competition from online radio webcasters.
"This is a major crossroads for music and the listening public. Do we want another fifty years of top 50 radio, or do we want the incredible diversity offered by the budding generation of webcasters like Pandora?" Westergren added at the end of CDFreaks.com's conversation with him.
