A follow up our recent story about the US government - specifically the copyright royalty board - looking into Internet radio. Currently, online radio is largely unregulated, and services like Punkradiocast and college stations are free to serve niche audiences otherwise ignored by the major radio networks.

The royalty board has levied a new "per play" structure which would force small radio stations to pay a fee for each song played, and the cost will apply retroactively to 2006 broadcasts. The minimum cost will be $500.00 per station. An analysis looks at the average revenue that internet radio brings in (1 cent per listener hour) and compares it to the new costs (1.28 cents per listener hour) The result is that the licensing cost outweighs any advertising revenue that a station could receive and will effectively cost 100% of advertising.

This is potentially devastating and wildly different from what commercial radio stations are paying. Unless advertising changes dramatically for online radio, this will make it impossible for radio stations online to continue. Punk and independent culture would be most harmed by this, particularly since mainstream radio effectively ignores all but the most popular acts and most conventional viewpoints.