1/31 Deadline for Webcasting Fee Payments and No/Reduced Recordkeeping Option Deadlines

If your radio station is webcasting sound recordings without having obtained royalty waivers, your station must make some decisions and pay the annual minimum fee prior to January 31, 2010.

Royalty Fees for the webcasting of sound recordings are paid on an annual basis each January.  The minimum fee is $500.

Stations also need to make a decision as to whether they want to opt-in to the CBI negotiated settlement that offers an option to pay a fee instead of submitting the required reports of use or submit reports that don’t require ATH or ATP data.  For many broadcast stations, this option makes is a great choice.  For unlicensed (those without an FCC broadcast license) stations, opting into the CBI negotiated settlement may be the only viable option as the new recordkeeping regulations require your station to submit reports of use (artist, song, album, label and listeners to each song played) on monthly basis for the entire month.  By opting into the CBI settlement, these stations can, in most cases, either pay $100 and report nothing or report some data and not pay the fee.

More in depth information is available on the 2010 CBI guide to webcasting for Educational Stations page.  Use our contact page for questions.