WOO HOO! First, we heard that SoundExchange was going to collect unfairly high fees from Internet Radio Broadcasters -- effectively shutting down anybody that wasn't Clear Channel. Then the deadline was pushed back to July 15th (opens in new tab) (i.e. 2 days from now). I was going to write a funereal "Goodbye Internet Music" post, but it looks like I still might not have to. Wired is reporting that:
The SoundExchange executive [Jon Simson, executive director] promised -- in front of Congress -- that SoundExchange will not enforce the new royalty rates. Webcasters will stay online, as new rates are hammered out.
Read: Listening Post - Wired Blogs (via BoingBoing)
So it's not a total win for Internet Radio, but just a stay of execution. Actually, it looks like the firestorm the move created is actually causing SoundExchange to soften their position. Go on over to SaveNetRadio (opens in new tab) to whoop it up and help with the next move.
