A message from a friend- music guru Stacey C. (aka 'Verb')- who runs the internet radio site SpicyPimps.com.
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On Friday March 2nd 2007, the Copyright Royalty Board announced new
royalty rates for Internet Radio stations. The rates are retroactive
to January of 2006.
The new rates are far higher than any industry experts expected. In
fact, if they remain unchanged, bankruptcy looms for many online
radio stations.
The new rates essentially levy a tax of $0.0011 per performance.
Doesn't sound bad, does it? But consider this: Each hour, the average
radio station plays 16 songs. So that's about 1.76cents per hour, per
listener. A station with a 500-listener average would be hit with
fees of $211 per day, $6,336 a month or $76,000 a year. Needless to
say, y'all know I don't have that kind of money.
This amount is beyond the resources of all but the very wealthiest of
corporations. Many of the Internet radio stations are run by
enthusiasts and hobbyists like Myself. SpicyPimps and others like it
are the small independent stations bringing new music and old
favorites to you every day---music you can't hear on corporate-owned
terrestrial stations.
Could this be the day the music died?
What YOU can do...
If you enjoy SpicyPimps and other internet radio stations, you need
to make your voice heard NOW! Contact your representatives in the
Congress and Senate. PLEASE write to them and ask them to help repeal
the decision of March 2nd by the Copyright Royalty Board. It only
takes a couple of minutes. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!
To find your government officials, follow the link provided below.
______
______
Write to Congress about this issue- See Here.
Keep abreast of what's happening with the attack on Internet radio at Saveourinternetradio.com
-----------------
On Friday March 2nd 2007, the Copyright Royalty Board announced new
royalty rates for Internet Radio stations. The rates are retroactive
to January of 2006.
The new rates are far higher than any industry experts expected. In
fact, if they remain unchanged, bankruptcy looms for many online
radio stations.
The new rates essentially levy a tax of $0.0011 per performance.
Doesn't sound bad, does it? But consider this: Each hour, the average
radio station plays 16 songs. So that's about 1.76cents per hour, per
listener. A station with a 500-listener average would be hit with
fees of $211 per day, $6,336 a month or $76,000 a year. Needless to
say, y'all know I don't have that kind of money.
This amount is beyond the resources of all but the very wealthiest of
corporations. Many of the Internet radio stations are run by
enthusiasts and hobbyists like Myself. SpicyPimps and others like it
are the small independent stations bringing new music and old
favorites to you every day---music you can't hear on corporate-owned
terrestrial stations.
Could this be the day the music died?
What YOU can do...
If you enjoy SpicyPimps and other internet radio stations, you need
to make your voice heard NOW! Contact your representatives in the
Congress and Senate. PLEASE write to them and ask them to help repeal
the decision of March 2nd by the Copyright Royalty Board. It only
takes a couple of minutes. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!
To find your government officials, follow the link provided below.
______
______
Write to Congress about this issue- See Here.
Keep abreast of what's happening with the attack on Internet radio at Saveourinternetradio.com
SIGN PETITION
More background on this decision
Digmedia.org pdf file report
kurtHanson.com
Broadcastlawblog
Savenetradio.org
Fellow Broadcasters Go Here and join the cause
We support royalty payments to compensate artists for their works.We DO NOT support being forced to pay twice as much as any other formof media!
BE peace,
a desperate VERB
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My Thoughts
what will end up happening is...this will backfire on the commercial music industry. The music industry is already lagging... limiting access to the music won't help them. Even musicians should be concerned about this because this could limit the potential growth of their audience.
And bottom line is, they will never be able to stop people from sharing music. And in their attempt to harm those of us who are enthusiasts, playing music online, they will end up helping the music pirates... by giving the pirates more work and more incentive.
This will cause folks to simply bypass legit royalty schemes like Live365, where artists at least get something, to more unconventional platforms...where the artists won't get anything!!! Their royalty payments will probably drop.... rather than go up. Furthermore, the RIAA has this notion that by doing this...CD sales will start to go back up.... because it will force folks to buy more CD's....WRONG!!!
This is a lose, lose, lose situation. The listeners and the music hobbyists will lose. The musicians will lose (especially those who are not with big labels or who are just starting out). And the RIAA will lose, because they will lose even more control over the industry. They will only cause more people to go off the radar where the RIAA won't be able to call any shots. These people seem to be hungry for power and control.... to the point where they have basically become a branch of the U.S. government. But no one is going to listen to them.
Hopefully there will be legal challenges to fight back. They should not be able to make a ruling that will shut down an entire internet sector.... they should not be allowed to cause that much adverse impact on the internet. The Copyright board is not the
final word on this.
And I find it interesting that this decision was made late on Friday, when the Congress would be away for the weekend and the media would not cover the story. They were hoping that it would not attract much attention....they wanted to get this processed with as little opposition as possible.
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1 comment:
Thanks for posting this. I'm constantly amazed by the lengths that big corporations will go to for money and power. Just imagine going from Jazzanova to Young Jeezy. Just hand Me a gun; I'll do it Myself.
Peace + jazz to you and your readers.
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