Latest SoundExchange agreements published in Federal Register, Election dates now set

Last week we reported that SoundExchange had reached a couple of agreements affecting non-CPB noncommercial webcasters. The terms of those agreements have now been published in the Federal Register. Our summary follows. If you are subject to these agreements, pay attention: your opportunity to opt in may be subject to a September 15, 2009, election deadline.

One of the two agreements – we’ll call it the “General Agreement” – covers all noncommercial webcasters. (This is noteworthy because the agreement was negotiated with a committee of National Religious Broadcasters. Despite that, the agreement is not limited solely to religious webcasters.) The second agreement covers only noncommercial educational entities, who have the best of all possible worlds: they can elect to be subject to the terms of the noncommercial educational agreement or they can elect the General Agreement instead.

Interested in the details?  Read on.

Recall that, for webcasting royalty purposes, the term “noncommercial” is defined by tax code (Section 501) considerations, not by the conventional FCC definition of the term. That is, a noncommercial webcaster is an entity which either (a) is already tax-exempt under Section 501 or (b) has applied for tax-exempt status or (c) is a government entity acting within its public purpose. As a general default matter, noncommercial webcasters must comply with the royalty rates set out in the March 2, 2007 decision of the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) and other applicable regulations, which require:

a $500 annual minimum fee per channel (though a recent Court of Appeals decision has raised questions about the continued validity of this fee);

commercial per performance rates, for listenership above 159,140 aggregate tuning hours in any given month (about 220 simultaneous listeners at every moment in the month);

reporting of information about all songs played for two seven-day periods per quarter

compliance with the "performance complement" elements of the statutory license limiting, among other things, the number of songs played from the same album or artists in a given time period.

Noncommercial entities can avoid these default requirements in a variety of ways. For example, some entities are covered by the agreement (which was recently extended) between SoundExchange and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 

The two new agreements now provide still more ways of opting out of the default CRB regs. Here is how those new agreements work.

The General Agreement

The General Agreement is available to any noncommercial webcaster, not covered by the CPB/SoundExchange agreement, which simulcasts an over-the-air signal (though it can also have other streams). The terms of the General Agreement apply to the years 2006-2015.

To take advantage of the General Agreement, the eligible noncommercial webcaster must file a notice of election by September 15, 2009 or within 30 days of commencing webcasting, whichever is later. (The notice forms are available on the SoundExchange website.)This will cover the webcaster for every subsequent year unless the webcaster revokes its participation by January 31 in any future year. The noncommercial webcaster must also make good on all unpaid royalties owed for the period 2006-2009 before September 15, 2009. 

The General Agreement calls for participating noncommercial webcasters to pay only a $500 annual minimum fee per channel by January 31 of each year as long as the webcaster does not exceed 159,140 aggregate tuning hours (ATH) in a given month. This is essentially the same requirement imposed by the CRB default regs, except that under the new General Agreement the webcaster must file a Statement of Account each month, whether or not it exceeds the ATH max.

However, if the webcaster exceeds 159,140 ATH, it must pay royalties at the following rates and time periods:

2006-10:    $0.0002176 per performance or $0.00251 per ATH for a music channel or $0.0002 per ATH for news/talk/business/sports channels)

2011:         $0.00057 per performance

2012:         $0.00067 per performance

2013:         $0.00073 per performance

2014:         $0.00077 per performance

2015:         $0.00083 per performance

(For comparison purposes, the CRB-imposed per performance rates range from $0.0008 to $0.00019 over the period 2006-2010. No CRB rates have been set for 2011-2015.)

Royalties for the excess transmissions can be calculated on the ATH basis by multiplying twelve songs per hour (a permitted approximation) by the number of listeners in each hour. 

The General Agreement imposes reporting requirements on participating webcasters. Specifically, they must file quarterly reports (due within 45 days of the end of each quarter) listing all songs played during two seven-day periods during the quarter. While a similar reporting obligation was previously in place, the new deal permits webcasters to report simply the number of times each song was played and the number of listeners per hour, rather than the specific number of listeners for each song.

During the period 2011-2015, if the webcaster exceeds a monthly average 159, 140 aggregate tuning hours in any given year, it must engage in “census reporting” for the entire following year. That means that it will have to report every song played during the year – although the ATH reporting method (i.e., number of times each song is played, along with the total number of listeners per hour) can be used instead of the more specific (and onerous) reporting of the number of listeners to each particular song.

Additionally, if a webcaster certifies that it had fewer than 44,000 ATH in the previous year (about five-six simultaneous listeners at every moment in the year) and that it reasonably expects to stay below that number in the coming year, it can avoid the reporting requirement altogether by filing a $100 “proxy fee”.  This certification must be made by September 15, 2009 or within 30 days of commencing webcasting, whichever is later, and again by January 31 of every year in which the webcaster is eligible for, and chooses, this “microcaster” status. The noncommercial webcaster can exceed the 44,000 ATH level one year in this time period and still retain this "microcaster" status as long as it implements technological measures to ensure it does not exceed the limit again. 

Noncommercial Educational Webcasters

Any noncommercial educational webcaster not covered by the CPB/SoundExchange agreement can choose to be covered by the terms of this second new agreement for the years 2011-2015 (or, for reporting purposes only, 2009-2010 as well). To be eligible, the noncommercial webcaster must: (a) be directly operated by, or affiliated with and officially sanctioned by, a domestically-accredited primary or secondary school, college, university or other post-secondary degree granting institution; (b) staff its webcasting operations substantially by students; and (c) not have exceeded 159,140 ATH in any month during the preceding year.

To take advantage of the educational webcaster agreement, a noncommercial educational webcaster must elect this status by January 31 of EACH YEAR or 45 days after the end of the month in which it begins webcasting operations, whichever is later. In other words, this does not automatically renew, unlike the General Agreement). 

Any noncommercial educational webcaster choosing to participate in this agreement must pay a $500 annual minimum fee per channel by January 31 of each year.  

If an educational webcaster exceeds 159,140 aggregate tuning hours in a given month, then the overage will be subject to the following royalty rates, depending on the year in which the overage occurs:

2006-10:    The current CRB-mandated commercial rates

2011:         $ 0.0017 per performance

2012:         $0.0020 per performance

2013:         $0.0022 per performance

2014:         $0.0023 per performance

2015:         $0.0025 per performance

In the event that the 159,140 ATH level is exceeded, royalties can be calculated on the ATH basis by multiplying twelve songs per hour (a permitted approximation) by the number of listeners in each hour.

The educational webcasting agreement imposes reporting requirements on participating webcasters. Specifically, they must file quarterly reports (due within 45 days of the end of each quarter) listing all songs played during two seven-day periods during the quarter. While a similar reporting obligation was previously in place, the new deal permits webcasters to report simply the number of times each song was played and the number of listeners per hour, rather than the specific number of listeners for each song.

If a webcaster certifies that it had fewer than 55,000 ATH for all but one month in the previous year (that would amount to about 75 simultaneous listeners at every moment in the month) and that it reasonably expects to stay below that number in the coming year, it can avoid the reporting requirement by filing a $100 “proxy fee”.  (The educational webcaster may exceed the limit for one month, once, without losing its eligibility as an “educational webcaster” as long as it implements certain technical measures to ensure compliance going forward.) This alternative to the reporting requirement is available not only for 2011-2015, but also for 2009-2010. A webcaster choosing the option for 2009-2010 should file the required certification along with the $500 annual minimum fee due January 31, 2010.

If an educational webcaster exceeds 159,140 average monthly ATH in a given year, then for the entire following year it must engage in “census reporting”, i.e., every song played during the year (but it can simply report the number of times the song was performed, rather than the full listenership for each performance).

Finally, every noncommercial educational webcaster must keep, for a period of at least three calendar years, "server logs sufficient to substantiate all information relevant to eligibility, rate calculation and reporting". So hastily deleting files to save server space may cost you more in the end.