CRB

The Copyright Royalty Board has instituted new fees that are absolutely insane. This has prompted Live365, our broadcast provider, to instate new rules.

These changes include:

• VIP "Are you still there?" campaign: All VIPs will receive an "Are you still there?" prompt after 8 hours that they will then need to click or the broadcast will stop.
  
  
• Non-VIP "Are you still there?" campaign: We'll also be testing different maximum listening session lengths and reminders on some non-VIP listeners.
  
  
• PRO Broadcasts only on iTunes: Personal broadcast accounts are priced based on carrying full Live365 advertising and branding. Without that branding/advertising, along with the new royalty rates, it is not financially feasible to list personal broadcasts with iTunes. Professional stations are still eligible for iTunes listing.
  
  
• Disabling of direct 3rd party player listening from Live365 website: Listeners will need to keep the Live365 Player Window open if they wish to listen via 3rd party applications such as iTunes or Winamp. Professional broadcasters will still be able to have direct 3rd party links from their own websites.

The disabling of direct 3rd party player listening means that the project to make WitchCast available to Pocket PC users has been scrapped.
These new rules are unfortunate, as we do not cause Live365 any royalty fees. WitchCast's playlist is comprised of music for which we have permission directly from the artists and are therefore exempt from those royalties.
We will continue to broadcast, however, we may need to find an alternative to Live365. If that is the case, WitchCast.com is where you'll find out, and we will also notify you directly on the WitchCast stream prior to any provider changes. Fortunately, Live365 has NOT increased their fees. So, if the changes mentioned above do not impact our listeners very much, we will remain on Live365.