Internet radio still stands, but no one’s sure for how much longer.

In March, the Copyright Royalty Board significantly increased the royalty fees for Internet radio stations. This increase – between 300 and 1200 percent, according to Savenetradio.org – still threatens to send many small stations into bankruptcy.

Internet radio is made up of many small, diverse stations in addition to big hitters such as Yahoo’s LAUNCHcast and AOL’s SHOUTcast.

That’s what’s good about Internet radio, says junior mechanical engineering major Mike Hahn. “Stations are able to play what they want,” Hahn said. “The variety of music offered on online radio is astonishing.”

Bridge Ratings and Research estimated in mid-August that 80 million Americans listen to Internet radio at least monthly, and that the “weekly Internet radio audience is estimated at 60 million.” That’s 27 and 20 percent of the population, respectively.

Clearly, Internet radio is important to Americans. We cannot let this source of music die or – an equally terrible fate – get bought up by bigger and bigger companies which then will put the same cookie-cutter playlist on every station, a la terrestrial radio.

Thanks in no small part to the myriad listeners of Internet radio stations, the Internet Radio Equality Act, a bill that would block these higher royalty rates, has been introduced in Congress.

However, the music industry group SoundExchange has postponed any payments under these new royalty rates – which are retroactive to January 2006 – until the end of negotiations between the industry and webcasters.

This is good news to people such as Tim Westergren, founder of Internet radio station Pandora.

“[The royalty hike] makes our business financially unviable,” Westergren said in an interview with PC World magazine. Westergren says that at the new rate, royalties would eat up 60 percent of Pandora’s revenues.

With more congressmen backing the bill, there’s still hope on the horizon for Limbik Frequencies, ChroniX Aggression, and the many thousands of other Internet stations.

But don’t think the recording industry is giving up their fight for the almighty royalty dollar. Negotiations are ongoing, and without our support, Internet radio can still lose if the recording industry decides to play hardball. Call up your congressman – Rep. Dennis Hastert if you live in DeKalb – and your Illinois senators Dick Durbin and Barack Obama, and voice your support for Internet radio.

It’s a priceless resource for both music fans and musicians. Don’t let the digital waves go silent.