The internet radio day of silence has begun in protest of higher royalty costs that will be imposed after July 15th. Major internet sites like Pandora, Yahoo, and Rhapsody will not broadcast any music today.

"To demand more than 100% of profits [for Internet radio operations] is insanity," says Tim Quirk, RealNetworks' vice president of programming. "It's worse than our worst-case scenario." The revenue that RealNetworks derives from Internet radio would not cover the fees.

To make matters worse, a $500 "administrative fee" is imposed on each channel making the small players in internet radio suffer the greatest loss. RealNetworks' Rhapsody service streamed more than 400,000 last year alone.

So today's protest may just be the beginning. Internet Radio may done for good if record labels stick to their outrageous demands.