US webcasters will face sharp rises in royalty fees that could be "fatal" to the nascent industry, a coalition of web broadcasters has claimed.
The increases will start on 15 May and will eventually charge royalties every time an online listener hears a song.
The decision to impose the fees was made by a panel of judges who threw out requests to overturn an earlier ruling.
Public and commercial broadcasters claim it will force cuts to services used by an estimated 50 million people.
As a provider of streaming media servers to clients all over the world, this is something that interests me and could affect me personally.
When it was announced a few months back, it was being touted about that the increase will mean playing a song before the new ratecard comes in would cost $0.08, and playing a song after the new ratecard comes in will cost in the region of $0.19.
Its going to send a lot of webcasters out of business, and will cause many to require much smaller media server commitments, which will in turn affect media server providers like myself.
I think its wrong, a lot of it has been bought on by the off air broadcasters and the non-indie record companies wanting even more profits then they already make to pay their signed artists even more millions then they already do!
It won't hit European broadcasters straight away, but is sure to have an effect in the end. Talk about silencing the web.
BBC News Report 
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