This was posted on MouseWorld Radio's Facebook page. If they are concerned about copywrite issues it is only a matter of time before other sites close as well. I don't blame them really. If it were me, I would shut down too.
"This past January, Live365 announced that they will discontinue operations. This was in response to the recent rate increased announced on December 16 2015 when the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) released webcast rates for 2016-2020. At the same time, a special provision called the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009 was set to expire in 2016, ending a 10-year period in which low-revenue online radio stations could pay lower royalties to labels than those paid by Pandora, Apple and other big
webcast brands.
The uniqueness of Live365 was that a broadcaster could operate a station, at a certain cost which would cover track storage, streaming services on top of licencing and
royalty payments. Now that Live365 is gone, broadcasters are now faced with the task of finding their own hosting services, bandwith providers for streaming and for negotiating their own licence fees.
While investigating a licence and royalty company, I was informed that due to the uniqueness of our playlists, that any licence would not completely cover our station.
Since the majority of our audio is assorted background music, resort tv audio/music, and music and sounds from theme park attractions, it would be very difficult to
obtain a licence to pay royalties to artists that are unknown or undocumented. Therefore, without a licence, if an artist or copyright holder argued a copyright violation, we would be fully responsible for any payments (including retroactive payments) to said artist or copyright holder.
What was once a really fun hobby has become a very expensive and legal endeavor. The reality is that with all of the increased costs involved, and the current amount of competition in this niche format, I've decided that is wasn't worth continuing operations at this time. I have decided that without a proper licence, I have too much to lose personally, so we closed down all of our stations on June 1st. We have fought this battle many times over the years with the RIAA and associated royalty and copyright organizations, and while I'm sure many stations will continue to provide a format of Disney theme park audio, (either licenced or unlicenced) I'm no longer willing to take that chance or expense.
We've had one heck of a ride though. Starting in 1999, we were one of 3 Disney themed stations on the Live365 platform. (There were over 140 Disney stations on Live365 and countless others on other streaming services like Shoutcast.)
We've done some amazing broadcasts in that time too. Broadcasting live programing from the Walt Disney World Resort during several years at Mousefest, multiple years
of live coverage of MagicMeets in Pennsylvania, not to mention being the very first internet radio station to broadcast live from a moving Disney Cruise Line ship in
international waters. We'll always be very proud of our accomplishments as pioneers in internet broadcasting.
Maybe things will change. It's good to be optimistic. However, with large corporate money going into deep government political pockets, I don't see things changing soon for the small broadcaster.
We've been so happy to have you as part of our family. For the past 17 years, you've woken up every morning with us, raised families with us, and even vacationed with us whenever we did a live broadcast from Walt Disney World.
And for that, it's all been worthwhile.
Am I upset??...you bet I am!
Please be advised that this Facebook page will also close this weekend.
Out of respect, I ask that you please omit from posting and/or promoting other streaming sites on this page."
from MouseWorld Radio Facebook.