(a) Royalty fees. For the year 2020, Licensees must pay royalty fees for all Eligible Transmissions of sound recordings at the following rates:

(1) Commercial webcasters: $0.0024 per performance for subscription services and $0.0018 per performance for nonsubscription services.

(2) Noncommercial webcasters: $500 per year for each channel or station and $0.0018 per performance for all digital audio transmissions in excess of 159,140 ATH in a month on a channel or station.

(b) Minimum fee. Licensees must pay the Collective a minimum fee of $500 each year for each channel or station. The Collective must apply the fee to the Licensee's account as credit towards any additional royalty fees that Licensees may incur in the same year. The fee is payable for each individual channel and each individual station maintained or operated by the Licensee and making Eligible Transmissions during each calendar year or part of a calendar year during which it is a Licensee. The maximum aggregate minimum fee in any calendar year that a Commercial Webcaster must pay is $50,000. The minimum fee is nonrefundable.

(c) Annual royalty fee adjustment. The Copyright Royalty Judges shall adjust the royalty fees each year to reflect any changes occurring in the cost of living as determined by the most recent Consumer Price Index (for all consumers and for all items) (CPI-U) published by the Secretary of Labor before December 1 of the preceding year. The adjusted rate shall be rounded to the nearest fourth decimal place. To account more accurately for cumulative changes in the CPI-U over the rate period, the calculation of the rate for each year shall be cumulative based on a calculation of the percentage increase in the CPI-U from the CPI-U published in November, 2015 (237.838), according to the formula (1 + (Cy − 237.838)/237.838) × R2016, where Cy is the CPI-U published by the Secretary of Labor before December 1 of the preceding year, and R2016 is the royalty rate for 2016 (i.e., $0.0022 per subscription performance or $0.0017 per nonsubscription performance). By way of example, if the CPI-U published in November 2016 is 242.083, the adjusted rate for nonsubscription services in 2017 will be computed as (1 + (242.083 − 237.838)/ 237.838) × $0.0017 and will equal $0.00173 ($0.0017 when rounded to the nearest fourth decimal place). If the CPI-U published in November 2017 is 249.345, the rate for nonsubscription services for 2018 will be computed as (1 + (249.345 − 237.838)/237.838) × $0.0017 and will equal $0.00179 ($0.0018 when rounded to the nearest fourth decimal place). The Judges shall publish notice of the adjusted fees in the Federal Register at least 25 days before January 1. The adjusted fees shall be effective on January 1.

(d) Ephemeral recordings royalty fees. The fee for all Ephemeral Recordings is part of the total fee payable under this section and constitutes 5% of it. All ephemeral recordings that a Licensee makes which are necessary and commercially reasonable for making noninteractive digital transmissions are included in the 5%.

[81 FR 26409, May 2, 2016, as amended at 81 FR 87456, Dec. 5, 2016; 82 FR 55946, Nov. 27, 2017; 83 FR 61125, Nov. 28, 2018; 83 FR 63419, Dec. 10, 2018; 84 FR 64205, Nov. 21, 2019]