Appeals Court Upholds Webcaster Royalty Rates

The D.C. Circuit on Tuesday refused to alter a ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board that set how much streaming services like Pandora Radio must pay for music until 2020, rejecting the argument that the board had used improper benchmarks from the private market.

The appeals court affirmed the CRB’s 2015 decision to use voluntary licensing agreements that Pandora and iHeartRadio struck with copyright owners when it set the rates from 2016 to 2020.

Those statutory rates are paid by non-interactive streaming radio providers, including Pandora, SiriusXM Satellite Radio, and online radio stations, among others

The ‘Copyright Royalty Board’ sets the statutory rates for non-interactive streams, which are typically funneled through SoundExchange.  That process is repeated every five years, and decisions can be appealed.

The CRB is appointed by the Librarian of Congress, and its determinations are sent to the Register of Copyrights for legal review.  Once approved, they are published by the Librarian of Congress in the Federal Register, and subject to review by the U.S. Court of Appeals.

For that reason, SoundExchange was an appellate in this case, arguing for higher rates.

According to Digital Music News, the companies paying these rates are happy with the outcome.  That includes traditional radio broadcasters, as represented by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB).

“NAB is delighted by the D.C. Circuit’s decision to uphold the streaming rates for broadcasters set by the Copyright Royalty Board,” the group emailed Digital Music News this morning.