I've just had an email from Live365 who host my Worlds of Trad Internet radio station. The gist is that the United States Copyright Royalty Board is about to progresively increase Internet royalties by 149% for the period 2006 to 2010. The increase is retrospective and takes effect immediately.

Live365 rightly regards this as a swingeing move and in my view it is quite unmerited. Like me, most Internet broadcasters are hobbyists. We do what we do out of love for the music and as a not for profit public service. What's more, Internet broadcasting actually benefits the record industry by generating record sales.

The upshot is that Live365 say the only way they can absorb the increased royalty costs is by increasing the fequency of advertising blocks. Therefore, from March 29th, adverts will be inserted every 12 minutes instead of every fifteen.

Live365 are appealing against the ruling, so if you find the advert blocks distracting, do please bear with the situation. I believe that World Of Trad has something important to say about the world's music and I'm getting a lot of encouraging feedback to that effect. Unfortunately, advertising is the only way this thing can be made to work, increased advert blocks or no.

For more information on the CRB ruling, see http://www.live365.com/choice/ .

Cheers,

Fred McCormick.

http://www.live365.com/stations/oneworldmusic