Yahoo To Pay Royalties For Web Music - Company Business and Marketing - Brief Article

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, Sept 11, 2000

In a significant change of position, Yahoo, Inc. has reached a licensing agreement with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) whereby it will pay royalties for broadcasting music over the Web. Yahoo has been negotiating with RIAA as part of a group of industry members (Digital Media Association) but broke off to reach its own agreement on financial terms that were not disclosed. The move will more than likely strengthen RIAA in its negotiations with the remaining members of the Digital Media Assn.

Yahoo provides distribution facilities for more than 525 radio stations and other Internet broadcasters. Earlier announcements by Yahoo and Digital Media Assn. indicated that the record labels were seeking 15% of the Internet broadcasting revenue but industry sources suggest that Yahoo's licensing agreement provides for substantially less than that percentage.