Yesterday, the news broke that the Internet radio industry has finally reached a deal with the agency that collects royalties for musicians and their labels, called SoundExchange. As Greg Sandoval reminded us in his post, this fight has been going on for more than two years and at times it looked bleak for the Internet radio sites.

Recording Industry Association of America Vice President Steve Marks said he’s happy that there’s an agreement because the recording industry wants to use new business models and avoid alienating partners. Well, this agreement will help, but Internet radio sites are certainly going to be paying for what they deliver to you. And you might, too.

Under the agreement, Internet radio sites have to share 25 percent of revenue or pay 0.08 cents per stream — retroactively, dating all the way back to 2006 — whichever is greater. And that rate’s going to go up through 2015, to 0.14 cents. By the way, that’s only for large Internet radio sites supported by advertising. Sites with revenues of $1.25 million or less are only going to have to pay 12 to 14 percent.

So what did I mean when I said you might have to pay? If you’re a fan of Pandora, as I am, you might have to pay if you listen to music on the site for more than 40 hours per month. On the company’s blog yesterday, Pandora founder Tim Westergren wrote that people who use the site more than that amount will be locked out, unless they upgrade their accounts to Pandora One or pay a 99-cent fee to continue listening for the rest of the month once they’ve hit the limit. By the way, if you’re interested, Westergren said that affects about 10 percent of the site’s users.

I know there are some out there who are crying foul at this, but the artist doesn’t get a penny for any songs that get played over terrestrial broadcast radio. Satellite radio and Internet radio have to pay royalties, at least until the Performance Rights Act is passed. And you can still listen to Pandora for 40 hours every month before you’re asked to pay. I think it’s a nice middle-ground.

For more on Pandora, streaming radio and related topics, take a look at these articles:

How Pandora Works
How Internet Radio Works
How Music Licensing Works