Internet Radio Equality Act - Who knows what is up with this

Skibo · Post by **Skibo** » June 26, 2007 2:40 pm

RM is silent today as protest. I am sure others have noticed. I'm curious. Are the webbroadcasters being charged more than regular radio stations. What is their beef? Yeah, I'm too lazy to look right now.

pbans · Post by **pbans** » June 26, 2007 2:44 pm

This was posted on Spooner's Shows:

This from Rolling Stone:

More details on the fight against the new, bad deal for webcasters: On June 26, thousands of Internet radio stations will go silent for twenty-four hours to protest a recently announced hike in the royalty rates they pay to play music on their sites. If the new rates – which will be more than double the current rates for webcasters – go into effect as scheduled on July 15th, many stations say they’ll have no choice but to shut down. Leading the fight against the ruling is the SaveNetRadio Coalition, which includes large webcasters like Rhapsody, Yahoo! and Pandora, as well as dozens of smaller ones. “The arbitrary and drastic rate increases … threaten the very livelihood of thousands of webcasters and their millions of listeners,” says Jake Ward, a spokesperson for the organization. While most stations will refrain from playing anything on Tuesday, others will devote the day to anti-shutdown programming. KCRW, L.A.’s National Public Radio affiliate, will stream a 60-minute special “D-Day For Webcasters” every hour at KCRW.com and on the airwaves at 2pm.
-- Stefanie Roberts

Skibo · Post by **Skibo** » June 26, 2007 3:17 pm

All I could find were similar blurbs. I was wondering were their rates being increased to be the same as regular radio broadcasters or are their new rates unfair because they are being charged more than a regular radio station would be charged?

Oz_79 · Post by **Oz_79** » June 26, 2007 3:44 pm

So will the Camden concert not be aired?

pbans · Post by **pbans** » June 26, 2007 3:46 pm

Oz_79 wrote:So will the Camden concert not be aired?

The consensus is that Radiomargaritaville.com with probably NOT air the concert, but Sirius will......

Oz_79 · Post by **Oz_79** » June 26, 2007 3:48 pm

pbans wrote:
Oz_79 wrote:So will the Camden concert not be aired?
The consensus is that Radiomargaritaville.com with probably NOT air the concert, but Sirius will......

Migration Michelle · Post by **Migration Michelle** » June 26, 2007 3:52 pm

Oz_79 wrote:So will the Camden concert not be aired?

Radio Margaritaville is working on Sirius radio right now. Are they going to turn it off?

pbans · Post by **pbans** » June 26, 2007 3:58 pm

Oz_79 wrote:
pbans wrote:
Oz_79 wrote:So will the Camden concert not be aired?
The consensus is that Radiomargaritaville.com with probably NOT air the concert, but Sirius will......

go sign up for the three day free trial on sirius.....you can still listen on the web via sirius....I just checked and there is regular programming when you access through sirius......that way you won't miss the camden extravaganza!

RinglingRingling · Post by **RinglingRingling** » June 26, 2007 4:14 pm

personally, I am saying "to heck with it". It makes for a convenient reason for Sirius sales/registrations to go up. I can live without the panic, and I don't feel like paying $15/month for something that was free as recently as yesterday

Oz_79 · Post by **Oz_79** » June 26, 2007 4:33 pm

pbans wrote:
Oz_79 wrote:
pbans wrote:
Oz_79 wrote:So will the Camden concert not be aired?
The consensus is that Radiomargaritaville.com with probably NOT air the concert, but Sirius will......

go sign up for the three day free trial on sirius.....you can still listen on the web via sirius....I just checked and there is regular programming when you access through sirius......that way you won't miss the camden extravaganza!

I did, I'm actually listening to radiomargaritaville right now.

And R2, for shame!!! I thought you would start a Tequila Walk to Washington protesting this situation. Mainly, you would walk through KS so I could join the stumble!!!

alphabits · Post by **alphabits** » June 26, 2007 4:54 pm

Skibo wrote:All I could find were similar blurbs. I was wondering were their rates being increased to be the same as regular radio broadcasters or are their new rates unfair because they are being charged more than a regular radio station would be charged?

Here's a link (admittedly from the webcasters point-of-view) that might serve as a starting point ......

http://www.savenetradio.org/about/myths_and_facts.html

alphabits · Post by **alphabits** » June 26, 2007 5:04 pm

More info .....

http://www.kurthanson.com/archive/news/ ... ndex.shtml

SummerByTheLakeside · Post by **SummerByTheLakeside** » June 26, 2007 10:41 pm

You bet internet radio is worth fighting for! If anyone here hasn't ever been to Live365.com, go there now and check out what all they have to offer - I've been listening to them for years. Literally thousands of stations, offering everything imaginable. If after seeing that, you don't think it's worth saving, you weren't paying attention.

By the way, they were silent today too.

Let's get the word out!

For additional information on what Live365 and other internet broadcasters - along with some of our representatives in government - are doing to help keep it all from going silent forever, see these links:

http://www.live365.com/choice/

Internet Radio "Day of Silence" Hushes Thousands of Stations

http://blog.wired.com/music/2007/06/if- ... e-onl.html

http://www.savenetradio.org/blog.html

WNYC Joins Webcasters in "Day of Silence"

Internet Radio Equality Act Note that this bill has been sponsored by a BIPARTISAN team in both the House and the Senate!

Internet Radio Equality Act, House Version

Press Release re: Internet Radio Equality Act (Senate) (opens in a PDF document)

http://www.kcrw.com/music/music-royalty-rates - this has links for contacting your Representatives and Senators.

(cross-posted from this thread.)

hawaiiboy · Post by **hawaiiboy** » June 27, 2007 12:19 am

This came in an email from Small Dog Electronics computer store

Today, June 26th, services like Pandora and Live365, and some public radio stations like KCRW, have stopped broadcasting in protest. Hidden in the industry's request for increased fees was a stipulation that webcasters pay $500 per channel. Don't think of a channel like NBC, CBS, or Bravo in this case. In the case of Pandora, anytime you specify a song you like and the service recommends other songs like it, you've created your own channel. So, since I've specified about 50 songs I like on Pandora, they would have to pay the recording industry $25,000 for my listening. The industry is asking for more money than the services are generating.

SoundExchange, the entity that collects royalties and distributes them to artists and record companies, feels that small broadcasters are simply trying to get out of paying royalties. Most of the funds they collect come from giants like Real Networks, AOL, and Yahoo. Meanwhile, webcasters are hoping for a stay of the ruling by the Court of Appeals. 120 Congress-people support a bill that would bring royalties in line with those paid by satellite radio firms like Sirius, and it's been reported that this issue generates the more response from constituents than any issue aside from the Iraq war.

SummerByTheLakeside · Post by **SummerByTheLakeside** » June 27, 2007 12:21 am

Yep, it's definitely getting attention, which is heartening.

BTW, I love the cat pictures in your sig!

Being Parrothead cats, have they ever checked out I Can Has Cheezburger (in Paradise)?

Skibo · Post by **Skibo** » June 27, 2007 8:52 am

SummerByTheLakeside wrote:You bet internet radio is worth fighting for! If anyone here hasn't ever been to Live365.com,

Live365 is pretty good. Haven't been there for a while but i did enjoy it. Thanks for the links, I'll get informed tonight.

12vmanRick · Post by **12vmanRick** » June 27, 2007 9:13 am

anyone know what the current rates are or what they actually have to pay for?

z-man · Post by **z-man** » June 27, 2007 9:16 am

www.savenetradio.org

will give you the details of the proposed royalty and fee increases and their potential effect on internet radio stations, particularly the smaller quasi-independent stations

LIPH · Post by **LIPH** » June 27, 2007 12:23 pm

From what I saw, in 2010 the royalty rate will be raised to 19/100 of a penny per song streamed. That comes to $1.90/1000 songs. How long does it take to play 1000 songs? Maybe I'm missing something, but that doesn't sound like the end of the world to me.

RinglingRingling · Post by **RinglingRingling** » June 27, 2007 12:26 pm

LIPH wrote:From what I saw, in 2010 the royalty rate will be raised to 19/100 of a penny per song streamed. That comes to $1.90/1000 songs. How long does it take to play 1000 songs? Maybe I'm missing something, but that doesn't sound like the end of the world to me.

I thought I saw something about volume of listenership being figured into the formula as well