Deal struck for public radio's webcasting royalty rates

SoundExchange and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced a comprehensive agreement on Internet performance royalties for non-comm educational public radio entities to be paid to sound recording artists and copyright owners.

The agreement establishes the amount of royalties that will be paid by CPB on behalf of the public radio system for streaming sound recordings on a variety of public radio websites during the period 1/1/05 through 12/31/10. The agreement was reached under the authority of the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008 (H.R. 7080) and will cover some 450 public radio webcasters including CPB supported stations, NPR, NPR members, National Federation of Community Broadcasters members, American Public Media, the Public Radio Exchange, and Public Radio International.

Public radio webcasters will be entitled to alternative statutory royalties from those established by the Copyright Royalty Board  in May, 2007. SoundExchange is to receive a single up-front royalty payment of $1.85 million together with consolidated usage and playlist reporting from CPB on behalf of the entire public radio system. NPR has also agreed, as a condition of the agreement, to withdraw its appeal of the May 2007 CRB royalty rate decision.

"This important agreement will ensure that the artists heard on public radio station websites will receive compensation and will enable public radio webcasters to continue to meet their public service, non-profit missions," said Pat Harrison, president and CEO of CPB. "Thank you to our public radio negotiating partners, NPR and the Station Resource Group, for the invaluable contributions they have made during these negotiations."

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