Song Reporting

[Chuck]

My station's latest invoice from Sound Exchange had a note along with it to the effect: "By the way, we are now going to require you to report two seven day song lists that are representative of each and quarter that you've streamed.” In other works, that’s a two week report for each quarter, times however many quarters you've been streaming. They want the reports retroactive to 2004. This is in spite of paying an additional fee to waive the reporting requirement for those years.

They tell me that they will refund the waiver fee, upon receipt of the song reports. That's not very handy. It is going t be a lot of work to resurrect those files and convert them to the format that Sound Exchange is requiring.

Does anyone have any info on this unwelcome Christmas present?

 

[RadioMan203]

You have hit across the very reason why many stations went silent back with the CARP crap. it's a pretty sad state that all these people are in the pockets of many who are only doing so as a hobby. I could see if we were all making money, but there's no way in hell it's possible with all the fees and costs for bandwidth. Add nearly impossible reports to the mix and you see what you've got? It also angers me when I see stations who I know darn well aren't paying royalties by any means getting away with it while those of us trying to be above board are getting nailed with all sorts of nonsense.

Best of luck to you for getting that data together.

 

[Chuck]

Best of luck to you for getting that data together.

According to a person I spoke with at Sound Exchange, the requirement for reporting was imposed by Congress. I asked what the deadline for filing the back reports was. He replied that so far, a date has not been established, just the requirement for filing the back reports.

I'm taking that to mean that until a cut-off date is established, we'd be within our rights to withhold the old information. I don't see any legal way around the requirement to start filing quarterly reports for 2007, since they are no longer offering a waiver of filing duties. That's not much solace though. I imagine that eventually we'll have to file the reports. It is going to be a big job.

When I look at Shoutcast statistics, It is amazing how many streaming stations are out there, and I'm sure that the Shoutcast list is just the tip of the iceberg. Who knows how many streamers there are out there? I'll bet that a very low percentage of them ever attempt to comply with copyright regulations. Since there is little or no money in streaming, I can understand why most don't go through the motions. It seems to me that a more fair approach would be similar to an income tax; 5% of your gross revenue from the web stream goes to Sound Exchange. They sure wouldn’t get rich on that idea....

 

[RadioMan203]

According to a person I spoke with at Sound Exchange, the requirement for reporting was imposed by Congress.

Thanks to Hilary Rosen big mouth for the RIAA. They couldn't be happy raping terrestrial radio so they went after webcasters. Mind you, thanks to the way the rules are written it will mean that once terrestrial radio goes digital they could be on the hook the same way webcasters are, thanks to the wording of the rules.

It seems to me that a more fair approach would be similar to an income tax; 5% of your gross revenue from the web stream goes to Sound Exchange. They sure wouldn’t get rich on that idea....

Which is the very reason they would not go for it!