cents per month for each person who subscribes.
Minimum Annual Fee: $2,500
Ephemeral Recordings: These rates will be deemed to
include the royalties payable for ephemeral recordings
Internet Streaming of
AM/FM BroadcastsStreaming: 0.88 cents per aggregate tuning hour
Ephemeral Recordings: The rate for ephemeral recordings
by business establishment services is 10% of gross
proceeds.Webcasters wishing to take advantage of the SWSA Agreement were required to submit
a completed and signed election form to SoundExchange no later than 30 days after the
publication of the rates and terms in the Federal Register, or for those webcasters who had not
yet made a digital audio transmission as of such publication, no later than the first date on which
they would be obligated to make royalty payments.
On August 21, 2003, the Copyright Office published proposed rates and terms for
noncommercial webcasters who elected not to operate under the rates and terms set under the
SWSA Agreement.^3180 Those proposed rates and terms were the same as those that were set for
the period ending December 31, 2002 in the Order of the Librarian of Congress published July 8,
2002 at 67 Fed. Reg. 45239. On Feb. 6, 2004, the Copyright Office adopted the proposed rates
and terms as a final rule for the 2003 and 2004 statutory licensing period.^3181
On June 18, 2003, the Copyright Office issued a final rule governing SoundExchange as
the authorized agency to collect and distribute the statutory royalties for subscription digital
transmission services and webcasting, including small webcasters.^3182 The rules governing the
collection, distribution, and audit of royalties by SoundExchange may be found at 37 C.F.R. §§
260.3 & 260.6.
As noted earlier, on Nov. 30, 2004, the Copyright Royalty and Distribution Reform Act
of 2004 (“CRDRA”)^3183 was enacted, with an effective date of May 31, 2005. That Act
eliminated the CARP system and replaced it with a Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) comprised
of three permanent Copyright Royalty Judges (CRJs). The Act also reformed the way
webcasters participate in the rate setting process. Webcasters must file a petition to participate,
which costs $150 to file, but parties with similar interests may split the cost by filing a joint
petition. The CRJs provide a list of participants to all parties, who then have three months to
negotiate their own royalty rates. If the parties are unable to agree, the CRJs will accept written
comments for four to five months. These comments may include witness statements, testimony
and exhibits to be presented in the proceeding, as well as other information necessary to establish
terms and rates. The comment period is followed by a 60-day discovery period. Finally, the
(^3180) 68 Fed. Reg. 50493 (Aug. 21, 2003).
(^3181) 69 Fed. Reg. 5693 (Feb. 6, 2004).
(^3182) 68 Fed. Reg. 36469 (June 18, 2003).
(^3183) Pub. L. No. 108-419, 118 Stat. 2341 (2004).