Net Radio Gets a Sound Salvation … For Now

We told you about the grassroots campaign being waged by Rihanna-loving office drones to save Internet radio. In a bizarre and unprecedented turn of events, an Internet letter-writing campaign actually seems to have worked … sort of. New online-radio royalty rates, which were scheduled to take effect yesterday and would have shut down sites like Pandora and Live365, are temporarily not being enforced while copyright owners work out a new deal with Webcasters.

SoundExchange, the arm of the Recording Industry Association of America tasked with shaking down Internet radio stations for royalty payments, announced on Friday that it’s proposed new, lower fees for online broadcasters that might allow them to remain on the air indefinitely.

Evil faceless corporations being evil faceless corporations, this could all change tomorrow, but for right now Internet radio’s chances of prolonged survival are looking slightly less doomed than they were only four short days ago.

Net Radio Wins Partial Reprieve as Royalties Loom [Wired]
Earlier: Why Is Your Cubicle So Quiet Today?