Bid4Spots Gives Public Support to Internet Radio Broadcasters
6/26/07 – Encino-based Bid4Spots, the online auction of radio advertising time, has taken a public stand “in solidarity” with Internet broadcasters as part of the industry’s response to the threat to Internet radio due to royalty rate increases set by the Copyright Royalty Board. Today has been designated by Internet broadcasters as a “Day of Silence,” designed to call attention to the fact that as a result of the Board’s action, royalties for Internet broadcasters are scheduled to move from a per-song rate to a per-listener rate starting July 15th, significantly increasing costs for online broadcasters.
Major Internet stations like Yahoo! LAUNCHcast, Rhapsody, and Pandora.com are expected to silence their streams today along with other participants like KCRW, Live365, MTV Online, Radioio, Radio Paradise, AccuRadio and independent online broadcasters.
In a statement, Bid4Spots CEO Dave Newmark said: “Although Bid4Spots doesn’t have a stream to silence, we want the industry to know we stand with the broadcasters in their fight to save Internet radio. As a business we’re looking forward to getting this issue resolved, so we can all get back to what we like to do – which, for us, is helping broadcasters generate advertising revenue.”
Besides being an important issue for Bid4Spots’ business, as the company conducts auctions for both offline and online broadcasting, Newmark and his staff are bona fide radio industry veterans. In fact, the company says that Rockie Thomas, who manages Bid4Spots’ Internet Radio division, is an independent broadcaster and will be participating by silencing her stream today.
More information about the issue and the Day of Silence can be found at www.kurthanson.com, and www.savenetradio.org.
Bid4Spots – www.bid4spots.com
