Congress is passing a law to buy extra time to iron out an agreement intended to save the emerging Internet radio market.

The federal Copyright Royalty Board decided in March 2007 to dramatically increase the rates that Internet radio stations must pay artists and record labels.  The stations say the new rates would effectively put them out of business.

The House unanimously passed a bill that would green light an agreement between Webcasters and SoundExchange, a nonprofit that collects royalties on behalf of recording copyright owners and artists from Internet radio stations and other digital radio services.

The two sides have been negotiating new royalty rates and are understood to be close to an agreement.