So this afternoon I've been paroozing websites that are discussing the impending doom of internet radio. If you aren't up on this here's the story: on March 2nd the Copyright Royalty Board decided to up the cost of royalties for internet radio providers, retroactivly and increasingly until 2010. I don't know if you listen to internet radio but I do, and this will effectively destroy small internet radio providers. stations like those available through college campuses across the country and Live365 will not be able to afford to continue running. This will leave the internet radio in the hands of the same people destroying the airwaves, stations like AOLradio will be the survivors (Jesus don't let it happen) if they even decide it's worth continuing. This also means increased advertising online (Jesus, ditto).
the other end of this is the artists will recieve more money, not much, but the reports say it will be around a couple hundred extra dollars per year. which seems insignificant, but it is surely significant to many artists. But the artists who will benefit from this extra dough are not going to be played as frequently as they are now.
Congress is catching on though. Senators Brownback and Wyden are introducing a bill (H.R. 2060 which you can read HERE) If this legislation doesn't go through your favorite internet radio stations are going to have to start accepting advertising or are going to start needing donations (god bless NPR but we all know how fucking annoying fund raising drives are). So write or call your representatives and get support for H.R. 2060. So if you want to know more about this (since I'm just skimming the surface) check out Last Plane to Jakarta for a blog post about this, or RIP Internet Radio for an article by Pitchfork, also visit Save Net Radio <- this is the best site for information, they are spearheading the movement to save the airwaves. As a host of an internet radio show I think that this is really important, (check out our site at the Local Point for info too)
And while you're at it (Pitchfork linked this in their article) here's a little reminder about who is running our country, we're in good hands, they are so in touch with the people MC Rove
No comments:
Post a Comment