As expected, tens of thousands of Webcasters across the U.S. have silenced their streams today in protest of the impending hike in royalty fees. Jake Ward, a spokesperson for the SaveNetRadio Coalition, stated, "With nearly a half million e-mails and phone calls from Webcasters, listeners, and the artists they support sent to Congress in just the last two months, this national grassroots campaign has certainly captured the attention of lawmakers, but there is more to be done and time is running out. During the National Day of Silence Webcasters will urge their listeners to contact their congressional representatives and ask them to support the Internet Radio Equality Act and preserve the future of Internet radio."

A wide variety of online stations are running silent today, including all Greater Media stations' simulcasts, Yahoo!, Live365, Rhapsody, MTV Online, KCRW/Santa Monica, CA, WXPN/Philadelphia, Pandora, WOXY and many, many more. While Clear Channel is not participating in the Day of Silence, it has reportedly announced it is in support of the protest.

Mark Lam, CEO of Live365, added in a statement, "Not only will the Day of Silence mimic the future of Internet radio under the Copyright Royalty Board-imposed royalty rates, but we also believe that in the long term, if the new rates are enforced by SoundExchange, it will push small broadcasters off of legal Internet radio platforms, effectively stopping royalty payments. Ironically, SoundExchange would see increased illegal broadcasting and lower royalty revenues."

As has been well documented, the CRB decision on Web radio royalty rates was announced earlier this year, and calls for a gradual increase in per-performance fees every year until 2010. The suggested new rates would increase to $.0008 per-play for 2006 (retroactively), $.0011 for 2007, $.0014 in 2008, $.0018 in 2009 and $.0019 for 2010.

However, Richard Ades, a spokesman for SoundExchange, told The Washington Post, "We are working through this. We don't expect these companies to pay hundreds of millions of dollars; that's absurd." In regards to the protest, Ades said, "I think the message you get is: You can't build a business without the music, and if you want the music, you're going to have to pay fairly for it."

The Los Angeles Times reports that there is "almost no chance" the Internet Radio Equality Act will make it through Congress before the impending July 15 deadline. However, bill sponsor Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) told the paper he would continue to fight for it, adding, "We're just not going to let this nascent industry die and we're not going to let people's websites go blank."