After having a near-death experience a few weeks ago, webcasters got another dose of good news. Sens. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., introduced a bill that would vacate a recent ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board. The ruling would have increased royalty rates for webcasters by 300 to 1200 percent (according to Savenetradio.org).

This comes after a pair of representatives introduced a similar bill in the House a few weeks back.

Webcasters had complained the new rates would sink many of their operations. The new rates were slated to go into effect on May 15 , but the CRB decided to push the deadline back to July 15 after an outcry from webcasters.

FMC believes artists should be compensated for their work, but there should also be room for small webcasters to operate, since they provide one of the few outlets for smaller artists and genres that normally don’t get radio play. The CRB should adopt a tiered system that charges big webcasters the full rate, while smaller webcasters should get a break.
www.futureofmusic.org
The sky is falling for the music industry? Not so fast…
Thursday, July 24, 2008 5:01 PM

A lot of ink is spilled on the declining fortunes of music industry. It seems like every other day a new report shows album sales are down for this period or in that country. In the wake of all the doom and gloom, the always informative Digital Music News posted an interesting report showing the sky isn’t exactly falling everywhere.

The researcher eMarketer is projecting revenues in the North American music industry sector will grow at a rate of 2.8 percent annually between now and 2o11. Revenues will climb from $23.1 billion to $26.5 billion largely on the strength of live concerts and publishing. eMarketer also predicts mobile and digital assets will offset decreases in physical sales.

"Every major category of the live music industry has been growing and is poised for continued expansion, including ticket sales, merchandise sales, ancillary venue revenue and tour and special event related sponsorships," according to the group.

Of course, the other growth area is independent music. Derek Sivers, founder of independent music distributor CD Baby, reports his sales are up 30 percent this year. All of this is great news for the independent musician — usually the most profitable area for any musician is touring and merchandise sales and, obviously, a general increase in the independent market bodes well for all indies. It also leads you to the conclusion that music fans may be voting with their wallets for independent music over the major label stuff, but that’s a subject for another post.

Anyways, the concert and merchandising upticks haven’t exactly gone unnoticed in the music industry. Live Nation just completed a purchase of music merchandiser Trunk.