Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Killing Internet Radio

If you ever listen to any sort of streaming radio on the Internet -- including one of my favorite sites, Pandora -- please take a moment and go to this site:

Save Net Radio

In a nutshell, the Recording Industry Association of America convinced the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which oversees sound recording royalties paid by Internet radio services, to increase those royalty fees between 300 and 1,200 percent.

Not only that, but the fees are retroactive for 18 months.

The vast majority of Internet radio services will obviously not be able to absorb this sort of cost. So they'll go away.

This isn't piracy. These Internet stations have been adhering to the law and paying licensing fees. But the RIAA wants them out of business. And if this sticks, it'll succeed.

5 comments:

Webmiztris said...

That's bullshit. That and making free (unofficial) guitar tabs illegal on the web.

Natsthename said...

It sucks. One of my net pals had to get out of the webcasting biz after 5 years, just because of all of this kerfuffle. I'd hate to see Radio Paradise have to fold or move to Mexico, too.

They can't make money on cds anymore (mostly because there is a ton of crap they're putting out), so they want to make it up by sticking it to the folks who are actually PROMOTING MUSIC.

Deadman said...

Save The Fucking Internet Radio...

Natsthename said...

LOL

Don said...

I listen to Pandora at work. You have a profile?

It sucks but I don't know what to do about it besides write to my white-collar conservative retiring on allegations of corruption Mormon Congressman.

The world changes. Some business try to get legislation passed to protect their interests, and sometimes that makes sense. But this is a technology issue and therefore will not go away. It's like phone companies protecting their copper wires only to be blindsided by the cellular networks. Well, maybe it's not but the point is, you don't win with draconian new rules that some clever lawyer will find a way around. You win by adapting.

What really burns me is this boils down to the big established artists protecting their turf against independents and small producers that in the old environment couldn't get in the door. Well, now they're opening their own doors. Deal with it.