There’s a lot of technology hating going on right now. Internet taxes, email taxes, the absolute ban of violent games (subjective??). And now this:

If you’re a fan of Internet Radio, you’ve got just over a month to enjoy it.

Effective July 15, a new law goes into effect that will likely put most internet broadcasters out of business. And yes, our buddies over at the RIAA have plenty to do with it. Here’s the scoop:

Your typical terrestrial radio station sucks pays royalties to composers. It’s a flat fee, and it’s been like that for a long time. Performers do not get paid, because radio stations argue that airtime is like “free advertising.”

Your typical satellite radio station pays a flat rate of 7.5% of revenues to both the composers and the performers. I guess paying a premium for no commercials directly translates into “not free advertising” for the performers.

Your typical internet radio station has been paying a flat percentage of revenues to both the composers and performers. Until July 15. On that day, things change. Internet radio stations will have to pay a per-song, per-listener basis for royalties. It would be retroactive to January 2006. This will cause royalty rates to rise between 300 (for large webcasters) and 1,200 (for small webcasters) percent. Some broadcasters will be paying up to 100% or more of their revenue just for royalties.

What’s this mean for you? Well, if an internet radio station can’t make money to pay for things like their servers or bandwidth (because it’s all going to the RIAA), and if that radio station owes more than 150% of their revenues immediately (due to the fact that this bill includes all of 2006), there’s an amazingly high chance they will go out of business. Sure, a few may go to subscription-based broadcasting, a few may even block an US IP’s from connecting to their servers. But a majority will likely close it’s doors.

LAUNCHcast? Digitally Imported? Pandora? Slacker? Y! Music? SHOUTcast (and every radio station that’s a part of it)? AOL Music? XMRO? Sirius Player? Rhapsody? Live365? AccuRadio? Public Radio Online? ICEcast? Last.fm? Any station that plays music over the web?

~Jaker

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