A silent protest over Web fees

Internet radio broadcasters hope their message is heard loud and clear

By: Nick Norlen
   Internet radio broadcasters across the country are hoping their silent protest gets heard loud and clear today.
   The Princeton University-affiliated radio station WPRB is just one of thousands of Webcasters that plan to engage in a day of Internet radio silence to protest a recent Copyright Royalty Board ruling that promises to increase royalty fees starting July 15.
   According to the SaveNetRadio coalition, a group of artists, labels, listeners and Webcasters that is sponsoring today’s protest, the recent ruling will increase royalty rates between 300 and 1,200 percent over the next five years — a decision they say "jeopardizes the industry and threatens to homogenize Internet radio."
   Princeton student and WPRB Development Director Michael van Landingham said station staff started planning to participate in the protest after hearing about it last week.
   "Basically the royalties we would have to pay would be much higher," he said. "Webcasting would just become financially impossible for us to maintain."
   But Sean Murphy, treasurer for Princeton Broadcasting Service, Inc., which operates the station, said the nonprofit organization has been tracking the issue for a few years.
   "When we started Webcasting, we started look into what kind of royalties might have to be paid," he said.
   Mr. Murphy said the real threat is "down the road. We’re being threatened that if we become too popular as a nonprofit educational entity, we wind up having to pay at the commercial rates," he said. "That seems like a rather backwards way to look at things."
   According to Mr. Murphy, the station used to pay approximately $250 per year toward royalty fees.
   The new fee is $500.
   In addition, the new requirements limit the number of listeners a station can have before paying extra fees.
   In 2007, the rate would be .11 cents per song, per listener, and would increase to .14 in 2008, .18 in 2009, and .19 in 2010.
   Mr. Murphy said WPRB’s limit is approximately 220 listeners per hour — an amount it currently doesn’t reach.
   "That’s a problem we would like to have," he said.
   He said the station’s objection is not to paying royalties, but the potential restrictions on how it can further its educational mission.
   "We are concerned that the rates are being set up in such a way that they’re not built in a way that gives us any incentive to do what we want to do," he said.
   There are currently bills in both houses of Congress that address the recent ruling, and Mr. van Landingham said station staff members — college students who hail from across the country — are planning to contact their legislators about the potential change to the Internet radio landscape.
   He said he hopes the station’s protest spurs national online listeners to contact their own lawmakers.
   Mr. Murphy, who listens to the WPRB Web stream from Washington, D.C., said he hopes the station can continue to serve its many listeners.
   "We know we’ve got people listening from all over the county or all over the world at different times," he said.
   Mr. van Landingham said the station, which broadcasts online at www.wprb.com, has one of the highest quality Web streams at iTunes Radio, which is among the most popular platforms for users to access Internet radio stations.
   He said the Internet stream is a "a very valuable asset" to the station.
   "It has to be the best tool to maintain listenership and to even increase listenership," he said.
   But the issue is "not just about WPRB," he said. "It really is something corporations are making more difficult to broadcast because it’s about money and they don’t want smaller people taking away their audiences."
   Mr. Van Landingham said the only concern about tomorrow’s online radio silence was that listeners might take it as simply a station malfunction.
   So the dead air will be interspersed with public service announcements explaining the situation, he said.
   In addition, DJs will continue to address the issue on the air.
   "It’s not something that we’re going to give up," he said.