Thursday, March 12, 2009
Issit the end for Singapore Internet Radio?
For people who are a fan of internet radio like i do, you probably would wonder why you can't play it nowaday. Here's the reason why.
An amemdment to the copyright Act in December, broadcasters have been locked in talks with the Recoding Industry Performance Singapore (RIPS).
RIPS is the collective licensing body of 13 record companies that issue licenses to broadcast music. The new fees come at a time when the global economy is in turmoil and advertising, the lifeline of media companies has been badly impacted.
The new fees is going to cost broadcasters in thousand, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollar each year in license fees depending on the number of stations they operate.
A MediaCorp spokesperson explained that previously, radion stations were exempted from paying record companies when the songs played over the Internet were part of a radio simulcast, but now this exception only applies to broadcast over the airwaves.
The service will only be resumed if an agreement could come to terms with RIPS.
Full story
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