At today’s Congressional hearing about the new rates for online radio that would essentially destroy it , SoundExchange, which was scheduled to receive the new royalty payments on Monday morning (since the enforcement date falls on a Sunday), made a startling statement. 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.While this does mean that radio stations will NOT be flipped off over the next couple of days it does NOT mean that webcasters are yet out of the woods. For now, Merry Christmas Radio is staying on the air.
This tonight from Wired.com:
