Help save internet radio

[weirdo0521]

Received this email from Pandora this morning...obviously geared to someone in my vicinity, but call your Congressman/Senator's office if you can.




Hi, it's Tim one more time...

Disaster looms! Today a federal court denied a plea to delay the massive increase in rates webcasters must pay the record labels. This means that, absent immediate Congressional action, the new ruinous royalty rates will be going into effect on Monday threatening the future of all internet radio.

This is a very dire situation and I'm writing to ask one more time for your support. The effort you've made over the past four months has been extraordinary and has forced the rapid introduction of the bill, but the committee process has been sluggish and we need to once again remind the representatives of the urgency of this issue. This is perhaps the most important phone call you can make for us.

Please call your Congressional representatives in the House and Senate and ask them to force immediate action on the Internet Radio Equality Act and bring the bill to a vote. It is critical that their phones begin ringing off the hook starting early in the morning. If it's busy, please try again later.

Congressperson Luis V. Gutierrez: (202)225-8203


Senator Richard Durbin: (202) 224-2152
Senator Barack Obama: (202) 224-2854

I'm sorry that we have to keep asking you for this - but it's our only recourse. We are no match for the legal and legislative strength of the RIAA and we need your help.

Thank you again.

Gratefully,




-Tim Westergren
(Pandora founder)

[hawaiiboy]

I received this in a newsletter from Small Dog Electronics in Vermont

Internet Radio's Final Countdown
By Ed@Smalldog.com

A few weeks ago, Matt wrote about the imminent death of internet radio. For those who aren't familiar, internet radio allows you to tune into thousands of internet radio stations around the world. You can listen through your browser, or you can listen through the "Radio" heading in iTunes. Internet radio is an excellent way to discover new music for purchasing later, find out what's happening around the world, and to catch up with events in your hometown at your alma mater via their radio's webcast.

Unfortunately, due to very aggressive lobbying from RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), internet radio is in immediate danger. Rates for web-casters have been drastically increased by a recent ruling and are due to go into effect on July 15 (Worse yet, the rate increase is retroactive to Jan 1, 2006. Before the ruling, internet radio royalties were already double what satellite radio pays. The 2005 royalty rate was 7/100 of a penny per song streamed; the 2010 rate will be 19/100 of a penny per song streamed. The option to calculate royalties as a percentage of revenue has been lost, so small web-casters’ royalties will grow exponentially. Web-casters royalty rates will effectively increase between 300 and 1200 percent over the next 5 years.

While music artists certainly benefit from royalties, according to the Chicago Tribune, "this kind of royalty rate hike will mean bankruptcy for almost every web-caster. A significant number of small Internet radio stations already operate at a loss; they carry on because of their commitment to the music they play."

This ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board goes into effect on July 15 - four days from the writing of this article. It appears that thousands of internet broadcasters will then go off the air, probably forever.

I started thinking about this today, becuase we listen to internet radio in our office here at Small Dog. It's the perfect way for us to enjoy diverse music. Also, the web-casters we listen to actually pay royalties to the musicians.

The only advantage of internet radio going away is that I won't have to hear Europe, Winger, Milli Vanilli, etc at work, ever again. But I also won't be as apt to discover new bands and musicians. There are several albums I've purchased from the iTunes store after hearing the band on web radio - Kaki King, X-Clan, and Easy Star All-Stars come to mind.

As Matt wrote a few weeks ago, visit www.savenetradio.org for an easy way to contact your representatives and tell them to join Reps. Jay Inslee and Don Manzullo as sponsors of H.R. 2060, the Internet Radio Equality Act.

This is a very sad time for internet radio

[moog]

You know what. Let the record companies shoot themselves in the foot. Again.

This will allow Indy artists to get their music heard.
Until they get big and sign up with a greedy major label.

[Catch&Release]

Wow. CD sales are going so well and now this.

[The Lost Manatee]

I have spoken with my Congressman and he is now a co-sponsor on the bill to fix this. My two Senators aren't available to talk to so I have emailed them and snailed mailed them. I got a response from one that was a serious waffle letter and haven't heard from the other.

If we hound them then we should be able to get this fixed so internet radio isn't killed off by the RIAA.

The RIAA maintains that traditional radio broadcasting promotes music while internet radio does not. Truly warped logic, of course given the history of the RIAA this shouldn't be surprising. These are the same people who opposed allowing radio stations to broadcast music originally because they feared it would cut into the sales of sheet music. Then they opposed any and all forms of digital music because it would make it too easy for people to pirate it. Now they oppose the internet radio stations because of the same reasoning.

Frankly, they should embrace new technology and encourage the growth of independent music so that there are more revenue streams, not fewer.

[AdamBomb8]

The RIAA maintains that traditional radio broadcasting promotes music while internet radio does not.

Leave it to the RIAA to come up with the dumbest quotes in the history of mankind.