SOME SMALL WEBCASTERS SNUB SOUNDEXCHANGE OFFER All Access Reservations about SoundExchange's royalty offer to small webcasters seem to be growing louder, as several webcasters have already gone on record to reject the proposal. The San Jose Mercury News' siliconvalley.com quoted several longtime small webcasters who allege that the offer is geared to separate the tiny webcasters from the up-and-coming ones whose inevitable growth will subject them to much larger -- they would say prohibitive -- royalty rates.
Radioparadise.com's Bill Goldsmith told the paper's website that he was one of six webcasters that had been negotiating with SoundExchange for two months before the label party went public with its own deal. He characterizes the new offer as an "attempt to 'divide and conquer' smaller webcasters and reduce his group's clout. 'This would be a huge step backward for us,' he said."
SomaFM's Rusty Hodge is turning down the offer because "the revenue and audience criteria are too small 'by any type of radio standards'... his station and many others play mostly independent artists, who are not represented by the group and would still be owed royalties at the new higher rates."
SoundExchange spokesman Richard Ades certainly didn't quell allegations of a divide-and-conquer strategy when he told siliconvalley.com that many small webcasters "want to move forward" with an agreement, and that "We can't let a few small webcasters hold up the many." |