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4 edits | reply to russotto
Wrong.... No...the individual radio station is free to negotiate directly with SoundExchange-assuming that SoundExchange is willing to negotiate with them!
Look at SoundExchange's charter from Congress-they have the EXCLUSIVE rights to collect Internet radio music royalty payments.
The fees are set by the United States Copyright Royalty Board-basically a shill for the RIAA-as they completely and totally ignored the Internet broadcasters' comments and gave the RIAA EXACTLY what they wanted!
The only reason that SoundExchange wants to talk is because Congress is considering a law (The Internet Radio Equality Act) that would put them out of business for being so draconian-and they want to be seen by Congress as 'accomodating'. If that law dies, I predict that SoundExchange will revert to being a herd of assholes again-overnight!
Now...if the individual rights holders want to give their music away for free, that's quite another matter, but if compensation is involved, SoundExchange collects it. |
| They are the only organization which can collect the _statutory_ royalties, but the radio stations are still free to license the music directly from the rightsholders and bypass the statutory royalty system. |
