What Now?

This campaign didn’t work: the House of Representatives canceled a vote on Tuesday that would have postponed royalty payments for Internet radio broadcasts.

The bill’s sponsor pulled it from consideration after Internet Webcasters and the music industry promised they could settle a years-long dispute over royalty rates by the end of the week, those close to the negotiations said.

“At the request of the parties involved, we pulled it,” said a spokesman for Wisconsin Republican James Sensenbrenner, who had introduced the bill last week.

An agreement could end years of bickering between the online broadcasters and the musicians and record labels whose songs they “stream” over the Internet.

Webcasters are due to begin making royalty payments of 0.07 cent per listener per song later this month, a rate that many small Webcasters say could force them out of business.

Sensenbrenner’s bill would have delayed the payments for six months while the two sides faced off in a federal appeals court.

Sensenbrenner believes the two sides can come to an agreement by Friday, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Richard Armey said.

Others suggested that the bill was pulled because it stood little chance of winning the two-thirds vote necessary for passage in the special procedure under which it would have been considered.

Musicians’ unions and record labels have lobbied against the bill, and prominent Democrats including Michigan Rep. John Conyers and House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt have lined up to oppose it….