Riaa Strikes 1st Pact For Web Radio License

NEW YORK-The Recording Industry Assn. of America (RIAA) has reached its first Web site licensing agreement under terms of the new Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which mandates performance fees for labels and artists for recordings played by digital radio.
The pace-setting agreement is with musicmusicmusic.com for its RadioMoi.com Internet radio station (BillboardBulletin, May 5). The DMCA, enacted last October, establishes a statutory license that permits Webcasters and other digital audio services to obtain public performance licenses. The DMCA does not pertain to analog radio broadcasts.
According to Steven Marks, the RIAA's senior VP/director of business affairs, the pioneering arrangement is the first of several now in the negotiation stage. Though he won't reveal the monetary statutory rate negotiated in the RadioMoi agreement, he says it will provide "a model" for others to follow. Marks says that in reaching an agreement, in negotiation since Dec. 1, 1998, there were "a lot of complex issues to work with."
Marks notes that in addition to payment of royalties, musicmusicmusic.com will provide "in-depth performance information on artists and recordings."
Since 1995, cable and satellite radio services have been obligated by law to pay royalties for digital transmissions. Marks says that actual payments were made last year retroactive to 1995 and that some figures might be made public in the future.
As for RadioMoi.com, it's been in business for 3ƒ years, with administrative offices in Toronto and its server located in Buffalo, N.Y.
A spokesman for the company says it has converted some 15,000 recordings to MP3. "Our people have programmed the best [pop] music of the last 50 years." He adds that the company is looking to make a deal with Canadian-government-owned CBC Records, with its huge catalog of classical recordings.
According to RadioMoi.com, many independent labels have signed "interactivity agreements" with musicmusicmusic.com, including V2, Ultra, Moonshine, World Domination, Epitaph, Tuff Gong, and Del-Fi.
"We are very proud of this historic agreement, which landmarks the delivery of music on the Internet," says Wolfgang Spegg, president of musicmusicmusic.com.
Spegg, who says that the initial agreement carries through 2000, notes that RadioMoi can provide tracking that includes a demographic breakdown of listeners, as well as information about a song, such as the album from which it's taken and the country of origin.
He also reports that the company plans to go public on the Berlin Exchange in June. Spegg reports annual revenue "in excess of $2 million."