drawn and quartered by SOCAN

Michael Geist reports that SOCAN and other Canadian copyright collectives are seeking to grab at least 40 percent of gross revenues from music downloading services. While all the talk is how this will affect iTunes and other music download sites, I can't help but wonder what it will mean for the burgeoning trend of podcasting. SOCAN is seeking a minimum payment of a quarter per song used per download. From what I gather, that would mean using a clip of music in a podcast could end up costing you big time. Even if your audience consists of a dozen visitors a day, that catchy little tune you use to open your show could end up costing you over a thousand dollars a year. God help you if you're linked by slashdot or boingboing and have to shell out for ten, twenty thousand dollars worth of downloads.

If you're even thinking about podcasting from Canada, I'd strongly recommend limiting your music selections to works under a Creative Commons license.