Taxing Internet Radio to Death

April 3, 2007 — -- You may want John McCain or Hillary Clinton to run the country, but do you want politicians deciding what music you listen to?

Though we think of them as lawmakers, not tastemakers, elected officials play a tremendously important role in popular culture.

Congress may soon respond to a recent decision imposing high fees on webcasters, businesses that broadcast music over the Internet. Webcasters claim they will quickly go bankrupt as a result of the ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board, a federal panel that regulates Internet radio royalties.

Most Internet radio stations are independent from the major media companies that own the majority of traditional radio stations. As a result, webcasters play a far more diverse selection of music than broadcast or even satellite radio.

For my DJ and music selection business, I have relied on Internet radio stations to expose me to new songs, bands and trends. On Pandora, for example, you can enter the names of favorite artists and songs, and the site will generate playlists with similar types of music, make recommendations and play music that you likely haven't heard.

Pandora, KCRW.com and other sites such as lastfm.com have exposed me to literally hundreds of relatively unknown musicians. In turn, I have helped get some of these artists' songs into movies and played at retail and restaurant outlets. I have performed them in front of thousands of people live throughout the world. Without these stations, I wouldn't have this music to introduce to new audiences.

But sometimes it's harder for people in Washington to understand how this process works -- and how it helps music.

The Copyright Royalty Board, which operates under the Library of Congress, dealt a potentially devastating blow by ruling that webcasters must pay both artists and record labels every time a song is streamed online. Basically, if a station has 1,000 listeners for a song, it has to pay this royalty 1,000 times for that single song.

Imagine paying for 400 songs a day or 146,000 songs a year times the hundreds of thousands to millions of people that tune into your channel.

ABC News contributor Michael Smith is an internationally recognized DJ who has a music-services business. He works with a variety of national brands. www.smitheventmusic.com or info@smitheventmusic.com