A group that collects royalties for music artists and recording companies has agreed to reduce rates for thousands of U.S. commercial radio stations that also play songs over the Internet.
Internet radio station operators had complained that rates originally set by the federal Copyright Royalty Board in 2007 could essentially force them to shut down.
The new deal lowers those rates by about 16 percent in 2009 and 2010. The stations will now pay $1.50 for every song heard by a thousand listeners in 2009, rising to $2.50 per 1,000 listeners in 2015.
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