We have posted a number of times in the past few months about the new royalty rates for Internet radio established by the US Copyright Royalty Board. These new rates represent a dramatic increase in the royalties owed to both songwriters and performers for Internet music broadcasts, with artists welcoming the change and Internet broadcasters insisting that they will be the demise of the format.

On yesterday’s Tech Tuesday edition of The Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU in Washington, DC, the discussion concerned this very issue. Guests included Kurt Hanson from the Radio and Internet Newsletter, John Simson from SoundExchange, Skip Pizzi from Microsoft Entertainment, Jason Oxman Vice-President of Communications for the Consumer Electronics Association and Jay Inslee, U.S. Representative for Washington State.

The discussion can be heard online on the WAMU web site, and should be of interest to anyone who has been following the debate about these new rates and what impact they might have on bluegrass radio online.