Save internet radio!

The RIAA has found yet another way to bleed the public of its hard earned money and it's a subsidiary they have dubbed SoundExchange. This organization is seeking to slap huge fines upon internet radio stations for the broadcasting of commercial music and the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) is helping them succeed. The CRB has proposed that internet radio fees would be based on two things: an annual charge and a percentage of profits. The minimum fee would be $500 PER STATION with a fee scale of the following: 2006 $.0008 per performance2007 $.0011 per performance2008 $.0014 per performance2009 $.0018 per performance2010 $.0019 per performanceA "performance" is defined as the streaming of one song to one listener; thus a station that has an average audience of 500 listeners racks up 500 "performances" for each song it plays. These charges are set to be billed reto-actively so any station that opened any time in 2006 would owe all the back fees as well as current fees. For noncommercial webcasters, the fee will be $500 per channel, for up to 159,140 ATH (aggregate tuning hours) per month. They would pay the commercial rate for all transmissions above that number.Her are some interesting facts for you to keep in mind: 1. Traditional AM and FM stations in the US pay absolutely nothing, for recording industry royalties due to a law made in consideration of promotion value that playing provides in return. 2. Satellite Radio services pay 7.5% of revenue, and are not charged any annual rate of per song per listener fees. What they pay is solely based off of their INCOME. 3. Internet radio is being asked to pay 100-500% of its revenue! Internet radio in itself serves as a wonderful way for musicians and producers to get their music out to the masses. Granted online radio isn't as big as your main stream AM/FM but it's gaining ground each day and more and more people are seeing it as THE way they gain access to new music. Internet radio is one of the only bright spots for independent music and diversity as well. Artists need internet radio as much as the listeners want it! Artists should be fairly compensated for the music they make, but putting web casters out of business will only hurt artists more. They depend on Internet radio to get their music out to fans and build new audiences. When the web casters go off the air, so do artists.Please show your support for bill HR 2060 and stop the death of not only internet radio but the promotion of artists and the crushing of many dreams as well.