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June 26th has been a quiet day on the Internet. Youtube is up and running, Myspace musicians are sharing songs, but try to tune into the music genome project on Pandora.com and you won’t hear a damn thing.

That’s because today is Internet Radio Day of Silence. Pandora, Live365, and other radio stations all over the web have shut down their streams in protest of increased royalty rates that will make it impossible for most Internet radio providers to continue serving their customers with good, free music. When the new royalty fees come into effect on July 15th, they will effectively triple the current fees for Internet radio providers and will be enacted retroactively for the past 18 months. The result, says “RAIN: Radio and Internet Newsletter” publisher Kurt Hanson, will be silence.

“In this case ‘silence’ is an extremely appropriate metaphor, since silence may be what listeners hear from most webcasters starting on July 16th,” Hanson says.

On May 2nd The Beatdown let you know about the imminent attack on Internet radio, but today the fight for free music is nowhere near over. A bill called the “Internet Radio Equality Act” has already been introduced in Congress that would save online music providers from facing bankruptcy and shutting down.

Now, it’s your turn to speak out. Go to SaveNetRadio.org to cast your vote for the future of Internet radio by calling your congressmen and asking them to support “The Internet Radio Equality Act” (S. 1353 in the Senate and H.R. 2060 in the House). It’s time for us to save Internet Radio.