If you normally listen to the streaming audio from WXPN while at work, you’ll find that the feed will be silent tomorrow. They, along with other internet radio stations, are going off the air tomorrow in order to protest the royalty rates that could go into effect as early at July 15th.

Silence is what Internet radio may sound like after that date because of a royalty rate hike scheduled to go into effect. The new rates will also be retroactive for 17 months and payment will become due to the SoundExchange collection organization under the terms of a recent Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) decision. The new rates could cost WXPN more than $100,000 annually; several times the annual funds raised by business support on the Internet streams.

The regular XPN signal will go silent for two minutes at 4 pm tomorrow afternoon as well. If keeping internet radio affordable and accessible is important to you, please take a moment to sign the online petition.

XPN Copyright Update

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