The House of Representatives has unanimously passed a bill also known as The Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008 that allows Internet radio stations to negotiate with the music industry for a royalty rate lower than what Congress mandated last year.

Webcasters are fighting for the right to negotiate with the music industry to reduce the royalty rates they must pay to stream music over the Web. Any deal must be approved by the federal government and current bill is a promising step forward.

The initial result looks something like this: the rate structure for 2008 is $.0014 per performance (playing one song to one listener); that cost goes up in 2009 to $.0018 per performance and in 2010 to $.0019 per performance. It is estimated that by 2010, Internet Radio royalty fees will be about 180 percent higher than those of satellite radio. Not too encouraging.

"There may now be a light at the end of the tunnel in the fight over Internet radio royalties," bill sponsor Jay Inslee, a Washington Democrat, said in a Sunday statement.

Everything began with the March 2007 Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), a decision that drastically increased the royalty rates Internet radio stations had to pay. Web radio station Pandora, said that under the CRB rules, it would be forced to hand over $18 million of its expected $25 million in 2008 revenue to cover royalty fees, and this would most certainly lead to its disappearance.

The Act will allow web radio broadcasters to negotiate with the music industry only while Congress is out of session. They have until February 15, 2009 to settle upon a new royalty rate. And four months doesn’t seem like a long time, does it?