Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler US Legislation proposes to kill Internet radio

I like to hear a lot of new music, and I have no patience for commercial (the name says a lot) radio. For a long time, one of my main sources has been Internet radio: it reminds me of late 60's FM, when everything sounded new, exciting and important. I am a strong believer in paying artists for their work - I support and pay for subscriptions to Internet radio, and then I buy the CDs from musicians who really move me. I don't trade rips, but have gone out of my way to hunt down and buy original CDs of music (& extra copies to give to others) for which someone has already sent me a ripped copy.

So along comes a ruling from the (American) Copyright Royalty Board which could drive a stake through the heart of the most dynamic, consumer-oriented and artist-friendly music exposure system ever created: Internet radio. If they achieve this measure of control, then it will have a chilling effect on the independent, creative artists who don't have (and maybe don't want) a big studio contract.

Uneffing believeable (but all too real).

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RAIN: Radio and Internet Newsletter

The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has announced its decision on Internet radio royalty rates, rejecting all of the arguments made by Webcasters and instead adopting the "per play" rate proposal put forth by SoundExchange(a digital music fee collection body created by the RIAA).

...

(Our) math suggests that the royalty rate decision — for the performance alone, not even including composers' royalties! — is in the in the ballpark of 100% or more of total revenues.

Dumb question -- do conventional radio stations have to pay royalties when they play music ? I kinda thought they did but not 100% sure.

In other words, is this proposal saying "internet radio needs to pay royalties just like regular radio" or is it setting royalty fees which are effectively higher than regular radio ?

Quote:

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do conventional radio stations have to pay royalties when they play music?

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Stations do not pay royalties for each song they play, because playing the music is basically free advertising for the recording artists. They do however pay licensing fees to agencies such as ASCAP or BMI.

Licence fees are payable for every public performance - if a radio station (or restaurant, elevator etc.) plays recorded music then a few cents for each song is supposed to be paid to the appropriate performance rights organization: BMI, ASCAP, SOCAN. These agencies then distribute a portion of fees back to the recording artists. It's a lossy system - most of the money gets skimmed off - but at least the people who create the music get a little bit of the cash.

The new fees are not levied for the sake of the artists. These fees are specific to digital music, and do not apply to broadcast stations (even if broadcasting digitally). The digital performance fees apply fairly specifically to Internet radio and are collected by an agency called SoundExchange, which is essentially a group of lawyers fronting for the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).

These fees don't go to the artists: they go to the "copyright holder" which is almost always the recording label (Sony Columbia, Warner, EMI).

The labels are specifically targeting Internet radio - and, by extension, your legal right (in the USA) - to control and prevent digital transmission of any recorded material. The next step will be to disable any type of in-the-home digital transmission (using Sonos or any other media bridge) unless transaction fees are paid. This is the whole point of the HDCP "copy protection" in the HDMI interface - to limit where, when, how often (and eventually why, who and what) media gets played: it will all be licenced and fee payable.

Internet 2.0 indeed; American laws want to take us back fifty years and they will probably succeed.

I wonder how the publicly funded Canadian radio stations CBC and Espace Musique (two of my main feeds, SQ is better in packets then over the air) will react. The new fees appear to affect all Internet music streams terminating in the US, and even though low-volume "non-commercial" webcasters get a break any site with more than about 15k listeners per month will have to pay premium rates.

Another case of a politicians and lobbyists extending special-interest protection via legislation across international borders.

Got it. So this is an attempt to compensate the record companies for the revenues they claim they will lose as a result of people "recording" the songs played over the Internet rather than buying the music through some other channel.

Internet streaming radio seems like the least of their concerns -- downloading higher quality rips still seems like the real problem. I wouldn't have thought that your typical Internet radio had any higher effective sound quality than FM or satellite radio does today.

I think I understand the concerns now. This does suck. Thanks !!

So......
Being a big fan of Radio Pradise and Pandora,
what actions can I take to help??


Most of the music I buy is stuff I've been introduced to by RP or Pandora.

This story is still unfolding, but there is a lot of rage building. I don't have any brilliant insight into what can be done, but here's what www.saveourinternetradio.com
has to say:

Yikes! What can I do?

Independent webcasters are currently working together to come up with a strategy to save their stations and the industry they love. That may involve asking people to contact their members of Congress or other authorities, but it’s a bit early in the game for a coherent strategy to have gelled.

The best thing that concerned listeners can do at this point is to get the word out about what’s happening. If you see a post on here or elsewhere that resonates with you, Digg it. Partcipate in the ongoing discussions about this issue on Digg, Slashdot, radio station websites, and elsewhere.

If you are a member of the press, you may be uniquely qualified to help save the stations we all love. If you feel the same sense of outrage that the radio station operators and their listeners do, then please feel free to contact any of the posters here to get more background on what’s happening.

Petition

/signed

Thanks. I signed, too.

Thanks!
signed