Remember when the FCC and Congress stepped in and changed the laws that allowed XM Radio and Sirius Radio to merge? Part of the deal included the agreement that the merged company could not raise it’s rates for a predefined amount of time. I don’t remember how long the price freeze was going to be in place, and I’m too lazy to go look it up right now, but I know that it was going to be a while before my rates went up.
That’s about to change. I got an email today from XM Radio telling me that my monthly fee is going up an additional $1.98 a month. From the email:
Music royalty rights were established by the U.S. Congress as part of the Copyright Act. This Act requires payment of copyright music royalties to recording artists, musicians and recording companies who hold copyrights in sound recordings.
These royalties have recently increased dramatically, principally as a result of a decision made by the Copyright Royalty Board, which is designated by the Library of Congress to set royalty rates for sound recordings. Beginning on July 29, 2009, a “U.S. Music Royalty Fee” of $1.98/month* for primary subscriptions and $.97/month* for multi-receiver subscriptions will be effective upon your next renewal. This fee will be used directly to offset increased payments from XM to the recording industry.
The real kicker is that I don’t even listen to music on XM Radio. They canceled the only music channel I ever listened to, the Punk Channel. When I want to listen to recorded music, I listen to my iPod.
I only listen to XM Radio for the live talk. I listen to Opie and Anthony, Ron and Fez, the Dan Patrick Show, the Steve Czaban Show, CNN, and Howard Stern. I used to listen to World Soccer Daily until they started asking listening for “donations”.
Why should a person like me who only listens to talk radio have to pay royalties to the music industry?
The answer is that I shouldn’t, but I have no way of stopping it. If I want to continue listening to live talk and news on satellite radio, I will have to pay it.
I’m already paying $4.04 more each month to listen to the “Best of Sirius”. Mostly that’s so I can listen to Howard Stern. I’m also paying another $2.99 a month to listen to Sirius XM on the computer and my iPhone. Since he only does a show four days a week, and his show for some reason is not available on the iPhone, I’m going to go ahead and cancel the “Best of Sirius”.
