The ongoing tussle over web royalty rates will keep on going, if the Webcasters Settlement Act of 2009 is able to get an autograph from President Obama. The bill, passed by both houses of Congress, will give interested parties an additional 30 days from the date of enactment to come to a resolution on royalty rates. The issues was supposed to have been resolved by 2/15/09.
RBR/TVBR observation: May we suggest, to level the playing field with AM and FM radio, and in honor of the fact that webcasters drive sales of recorded music, that the royalty be completely eliminated. (And we know whereof we speak – the last two CDs we personally bought were recordings we had never heard of until they were introduced to us by a webcaster.)
