Rumors: SoundExchange May Be Looking For Its Own Google-Sized Payday

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Last week, SoundExchange, the organization that collects performance royalties on behalf of music's copyright owners, offered a slight reprieve to radio stations, saying that it would hold off collecting the per-channel payout of $500--which would result in "personalized radio" sites like Pandora paying the organization a huge chunk of money--until 2008. But is SoundExchange offering this stay of execution for strategic reasons? The founder of "extremely independent" streaming-radio outlet SomaFM thinks so. From Listening Post:
SoundExchange is only offering webcasters an 18-month reprieve from the minimum fees that would be required by impending online radio royalty rates because it secretly hopes that during that time, Pandora will be acquired by Google -- according to Rusty Hodge, founder of listener-supported SomaFM.

In an email sent to Listening Post, he wrote,​
"The likely outcome that SoundExchange is hoping for is for Pandora to be acquired by Google in the next 18 months, since it will be hard for Google to say they can't afford the new, higher rates. (Shades of YouTube)."​
A sign of acquisitions to come--or some Internet bubble-style slash designed to pep up a holiday-truncated week? Tips welcome, of course.
SomaFM Founder: SoundExchange Wants Google to Buy Pandora [Listening Post]
[IMG]http://feeds.gawker.com/~a/idolator/full?i=od5Pcv[/IMG]


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