For the time being, companies like Pandora "aren't likely to be charged immediately," he said.
But the UK ruling, announced last Monday and effective from July 1, creates a new problem. In addition to a percentage of total revenue, for every track they play Webcasters will have to pay a minimum charge which is nine times higher than the US royalty board's projected per-track rate for 2010.
The terms were originally agreed last September, in a royalty settlement between record companies and parties including mobile phone operators, music download companies and the MCPS-PRS Alliance, which collects music royalties for publishers.
Three Webcasters -- AOL, Real Networks and Yahoo -- failed to settle.
Now, Webcasters face a war with regulators on both sides of the Atlantic.
Very large Webcasters may be able to stomach the fees, but Pandora is preparing to shut its service in the UK -- the only country served outside the US -- as early as this week, says international managing director Paul Brown.
The service, which had been offered informally while Pandora negotiated UK music licensing deals, was to formally launch by the end of the year, but it could never be profitable under the new rules, he said.
"We want to bring this good service to the UK, but it has to be on an economic base and if you're losing money for every hour then there's no business there," Brown lamented.
For Pandora UK at least, it turns out that July 16 really was the day the music died.
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