Deals could be close on Internet radio

Still to be decided is the even larger issue of what the new royalty rates should be.

The copyright judges ruled that online broadcasters must pay higher royalties per song, per listener, for every song delivered. The judges also set out specific per-song rates, but the two sides are talking about setting new rates.

Jonathan Potter, executive director of the Digital Media Association, whose members include large commercial Webcasters such as Yahoo, RealNetworks Inc. and Pandora, says he's "cautiously optimistic" about reaching a deal in the next several weeks.

Potter declined to go into details of the discussions, but he indicated that the industry was eager to get the rates issue out of the way.

"We're in a holding pattern," Potter said. "This is obviously not the time for people to be launching new ventures. We've got to resolve this before the industry can get to the next level."

National Association of Broadcasters spokesman Dennis Wharton called the wait for a response from SoundExchange "disappointing."

Simson, with the SoundExchange, noted that the music industry's multi-track talks with the various groups of Internet radio operators has been extraordinarily complex and said talks are moving ahead as expeditiously as possible.

"It takes a fair amount of work, and we've been doing the due diligence" on assessing NAB's proposals, Simson said.

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