RIAA Finds Allies, Foes On Web Royalty Issue

13-Apr-00

As the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) wrestle in court over Internet music and artist royalties, executives from WWW.COM on Tuesday discussed why the music webcaster has taken the lead in artist compensation. Los Angeles-based WWW.COM in February signed an agreement with RIAA to pay royalties to artists and labels for music streamed to audiences through its network of online partners. The deal retroactively applies to every song the company has delivered since WWW.COM began in early 1999, said Michael Romano, vice president of marketing. He said he understands that WWW.COM was the first company to ink such a royalty arrangement with RIAA. ""I am a strong proponent of the RIAA and artist performance rights,"" added Scott Purcell, president and company founder. He said WWW.COM, which streams some 25 million songs per month, pays out royalties for each song, taking into account the calculated number of listeners. The agreement between WWW.COM and RIAA finds its basis in the 1998 Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which states that record companies and artist be guaranteed a reasonable reward for use of their works when broadcast on the web. Struggling to bring other music webcasters into the royalty fold, RIAA earlier this year asked the U.S. Copyright Office to rule that record companies are due royalty payments if a radio station streams signals over the Internet. In reaction, NAB last month filed a suit in the U.S. District Court of New York to block the Copyright Office from issuing a decision on the matter. At the time, Dennis Wharton, senior vice president for communications at NAB, said historical law exempting radio stations from paying royalties to record companies extends to Internet broadcasts. Moreover, he said, radio stations already pay annual copyright fees to music publishers through Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). At NAB 2000 today, Wharton said there had been no developments with regards to the matter. Spokespersons at RIAA could not be reached for comment by presstime. Unlike radio stations that stream over-the-air broadcasts on the Internet, WWW.COM is strictly web-based and has no FCC spectrum. The company says it is the Internet_s largest business-to-business music broadcasting network and the dominant provider of co-branded music solutions for websites worldwide. Source: Pro Sound News