SoundExchange president and CEO Michael Huppe. Photo Credit: SoundExchange
Ahead of related CRB Web VI hearings, SoundExchange and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) have unveiled a rates agreement covering 2026 through 2030.
SoundExchange and the radio rep just recently put out a joint release about the deal, which was actually finalized closer to April’s beginning. Meanwhile, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) set the overarching Web VI wheels in motion early last year.
Unsurprisingly, there’s been plenty of back and forth between the involved parties since then, the CRB’s pages-deep Web VI section shows. (The main CRB hearings themselves are slated to commence next Monday, April 28th, though a prehearing conference is scheduled for Wednesday the 23rd.)
Nevertheless, the talks (or at least those concerning rates for a portion of non-interactive digital recording usages – more on this in a moment) look to be ushering in significant progress relative to certain prior negotiations. And they’ll presumably be far smoother than some forthcoming rate discussions when all is said and done.
Bringing the focus back to the internet-radio world, the NAB and SoundExchange say their proposed settlement will boost the non-subscription rate to $0.0028 per usage in 2026 (up from $0.0025 currently). From there, the per-usage rate would increase by $0.0001 annually en route to hitting $0.0032 in 2030.
Additionally, the minimum fee would come in at $1,100 in 2026, grow by $50 annually until hitting $1,250 in 2029, and then remain the same in 2030. The payment deadline, for its part, would decrease from 45 days to 30 days following each month’s conclusion.
Lastly, in terms of brass-tacks takeaways, the NAB and SoundExchange treaded new ground with regard to late fees and access to performance data held by third-party vendors, among other things.
In a statement, SoundExchange president and CEO Michael Huppe applauded the “business solution that both parties can accept,” including because of the compromise’s “many benefits over battling it out in court.”
(George Johnson and Word Collections are participating as well; both, upon reviewing the relevant terms, “agreed they would not object to the” NAB settlement, per the adoption motion.)
And in remarks of his own, NAB head Curtis LeGeyt touted the settlement for providing “critical certainty around streaming rates in a way that is sustainable for broadcasters large and small.”
Bigger picture, SoundExchange has also proposed Web VI rate settlements on the public- and college-radio sides. And today, the entity reiterated proposed rates for all activities not covered by these possible settlements.
Against the backdrop of an existing royalties war between SoundExchange and SiriusXM – and given the above-described settlements, of course – that move is decidedly important for the satellite radio giant.
To be sure, besides seeking to address all sorts of “material terms issues,” SoundExchange has doubled down on calls for a substantially heightened per-performance rate of $0.0037 for subscriptions during the first year of the half-decade window.
