If you heard a crashing sound sometime on March 2nd of this year, it may well have been the first major event in the fall of Internet radio. On that day, the Library of Congress' Copyright Royalty Board dealt a hammer blow to independent Internet radio stations by raising the royalty rate on the licensing of copyrighted songs for Internet broadcast. While a raise from 0.07 cents per song to 0.08 cents per song may not sound like much, it constitutes a 14.3% increase, and was made retroactive to the beginning of 2006. For sites like Pandora.com, which streamed tens of millions of songs to Internet users during that time and now faces multi-million-dollar payments for back royalties, it may mean the end.

     Additionally, the rate is set to rise as far as 0.19 cents per play by the end of 2010, thus excluding all but the best-financed operations from being able to function - a frankly ridiculous thing to have happen to a fledgling industry currently in a major growth phase.

     And as if that weren't enough, a minimum fee of $500 has been imposed for each online radio statio or distribution channel. AccuRadio, a site with 320 channels, would thus get slapped with an additional $64,000 at a minimum. Pandora, which allows thousands of users to create a range of personalized channels, could face fees running into nine-digit ranges. Pandora's chief executive, Joe Kennedy, has opined that "no one has a viable business at the new rate."

It should be noted that this decision comes hot on the heels of the announcement by broadcasting heavyweight Clear Channel that they intend to start placing greater focus on independent and unsigned acts. One would almost think, if one were conspiratorially inclined, that the decisions were related, and that Clear Channel's competition is being strategically removed by their friends in high places.

     Congressman Ed Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications, has quite correctly described the ruling as "a body blow to many nascent Internet radio broadcasters", but as usual the voice of reason is being drowned out by those howling for money.

     While SoundExchange, the company set up to manage and distribute digital performance royalties, is a non-profit organization dedicated to getting the money to the copyright holders and are thus not among the ranks of those who stand to profit from this, their firm support for this decision is ultimately to cause a drop in revenues rather than an increase, as the smaller distribution channels wither and die.

     If you want to show your support for Internet radio and deal a body blow right back to those responsible, here are a few tips:

* Stay off the commercial radio stations. You can get a list of the stations owned by Clear Channel at Wikipedia.

     * Write, e-mail or call your elected representatives. If you need contact info, you can get it from here.

     * Go to a show, buy a T-shirt or a CD. The artist will receive substantially more than 0.08 cents per song for their efforts this way.

     * Sign an online petition at SaveTheStreams to save Internet radio.

     * Get your indie music fix by going to MagnaTune.com - the site licenses its music content directly from artists, streams it royalty-free, and gives a full 50% of proceeds from downloaded music to the artists themselves.

     If you're a regular Green Room reader, you know how important it is to show your support to a deserving cause. The Copyright Royalty Board has placed one in our laps, and it's important for artist development and business viability that we show our support. Please do what you can, and if you have other suggestions for what our readers can do, please feel free to email us and let us know!