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Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

Internet radio services like Pandora will have to pay more to artists and their representative groups, according to a decision released today [loc.gov] by the Copyright Royalty (CRB). The basic per-song rates paid by Pandora will go from $.0014 per song, or 14 cents per 100 songs played, to $.0017. That's slightly more than a 20 percent increase.

The $.0017 rate will remain in effect for all of 2016 and then may increase according to the Consumer Price Index, a common measure of inflation, through 2020. At that point, the CRB will make another rate decision.

Today's decision resolves a long legal fight in which Pandora was asking to pay a lower rate of $.0011. SoundExchange, which distributes money to record labels and artists, wanted the rate to nearly double to $.0025 per stream.

The decision applies to all Internet radio providers, of which Pandora is the largest. Its competitors like iHeartRadio will have to pay the same rate.

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