As heard on “Media Matter” and “Media Minutes” on WILL-AM 580 1PM Sunday, May 6, 2007
New laws increasing royalty rates for small Internet Radio sites are scheduled to go into effect on June 15, effectively leaving the door open for mega-sites owned by the billion dollar corporations such as Clear Channel, and wiping out virtually the entire map clean of those who invented Internet Radio, leaving a vast vacuum for the major corporations to fill at their leisure.
No billion dollar buyout as Google did with YouTube, this one will not make it into either the headlines or hardly even the back pages of financial news now, but will do so only when the great piles of money start to move in and out.
Bills are being introduced in Congress to alleviate the situation, but reports, including the one above, say that Congress won’t be able to move fast enough– and the axe will fall on June 15.
— Michaell Hart