SoundExchange, the group that collects fees from webcasters and distributes the money to labels and artists, offered a new deal on rates to independent webcasters earlier this week. The deal—which would allow small webcasters to pay a percentage of their revenues (10 to 12 percent) rather than a rate based on plays (which works out to a drastically smaller payout)—is similar to the deal I described in a recent CounterIntel column, in which I sided with SoundExchange. (Sue me, but I think artists should get paid.)

Not sure how I feel about SoundExchange deal at the moment, though. The webcasters make a pretty good case that the deal will hurt webcasters in the long run. (I do want webcasting to flourish.)

One thing the webcasters don’t like about the deal is that it throws big webcasters “under the bus.” That’s true. Big webcasters, like AOL, would get hit with a heavy rate increase for payments to labels and artists. Interestingly, the indies are using that fact to criticize the deal. I guess they’re all imagining themselves as AOLs one day.

Here’s a more even-keeled take on the offer.

Surely, one good thing about the deal is that SoundExchange backed off its earlier demand that webcasters accept DRM requirements to prevent listeners from downloading. From the content provider POV (like record companies), DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. For fans who like to download, DRM stands for Digital Restriction Management.