David Oxenford in the Broadcast Law Blog reports that the Copyright Royalty Board announced Dec. 16 that the royalty rates for anyone to play sound recordings on the internet for public listening fell by a third, the first lowering of fees ever. Commercial webcasters -- and that includes radio stations simulcasting their FM signals -- will pay $.0017 as the per performance (i.e. the rate paid per song, per listener) starting Jan. 1. David Oxenford explained about the royalty rates in an interview Dec. 22 with Triton Digital.