Internet Radio Is In Trouble

Several years ago, the RIAA, representing the big four record labels lobbied Congress to put Royalty fee's in place for Internet Radio. These fee's were above and beyond what traditional radio stations pay. Traditional radio fee's are collected on behalf of the publishers and not the record labels themselves. However, Internet Radio became subject to both the Publisher rates and the Recording Industry Rates.

Back then, I was passionate about the death of Internet Radio. Since then, I have seen it boom. How many of these stations are paying these fee's is subjective, but it has grown none the less.

This process started again recently to establish the rates for 2006-2010. The results are unreal.

I am beside myself at the moment and can not even express my absolute frustration with this process and the corporate greed it represents.....

Go read it for yourself...

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainm...esto-239512.php

http://blog.wired.com/music/2007/03/us_copyright_ro.html

http://www.broadcastlawblog.com/archives/i...-royalties.html

At this point, I am at the mercy of Live365's ability to negotiate a better deal on their own behalf. Depending on what happens there, I may have no choice but to shut down the radio stations, again.

I have never felt so small and helpless in my life..... This sucks....

😡

I saw this yesterday and was too disturbed to post anything. f*ckers!

That does suck. I hope Live365 can work something out. Maybe it was a good thing you did not have the $2000 for the other license after all.

I remember this killing all web broadcasts the last time, I hope it doesn't do the same again. Freaking jerks, I hope they fall REAL hard.

As much as I don't want to see it, maybe it does need to kill all internet broadcasts so that they will see how much money this is going to cost them and re-think the idea.

The issue here is control. They don't want guys like me running popular internet radio stations because I don't follow the corporate rules. I play songs that are not singles endorsed by the record labels and I play independent artists.

This has diluted their brand and power and instead of having a few really high record sales, it has leveled the field a bit for all artists. They don't like that.

Paladin, I was thinking the same thing. Some of the guys that did sign up are worried now. The thing that really sucks is the new minimum royalty fee is $500 per channel. So, even if we didn't have enough listeners to bring us to the $500 level, we would still have to pay $500 a year per station just to say we broadcast.

I am racking my brain trying to come up with a way to keep things going while not supporting the RIAA. The only thing I can come up with is to drop the stations and turn to an indie podcast, a gaming music podcast or just game talk period.

Who knows, maybe this will push us in a direction that is more game related. That has to be a positive in all of this shit......

Maybe you need to stop waiting on your professional announcer-voice guy to have time to work with you , and just put out some sound bites with YOU talking, telling ppl what's going on maybe asking them to call/write their congressman. . .put up some links on the front page that points ppl to their congressman's contact info along with a short explanation as to what's going on and why you need their help. It might sound better if it came from you anyway, instead of a professional announcer-voice guy. More of a personal appeal.

I'm sure you have another msg board or 2 you go to populated by ppl that have radio stations similar to yours. See if you can get them to do similar things, or if they have a better idea as to how to go about this. . .a grass-roots campaign of sorts.

If it goes thru and they do start charging more, make more bits/blurbs/bumpers/whatever the hell you call them, and get ppl to your front page to read about what's going on, and how badly you need donations. Make it easy for them to click on a link and make $1, $2.50, $5, $10 and $20 donations from PayPal.

A few ideas for you. Hope this shakes out in your favor, but if I were you, I wouldn't bank on hope.

I've pretty much given up writing Congress. They really don't care about this issue and the RIAA has too much money and power. The writing is on the wall. Now, all I can do is wait and see what Live365 comes up with.

I bet there are many many songs that you could put up there that are royalty free. I bet there are a lot of independent artists that would love some air play. Didn't you just get a 1 GB+ file of Free MP3's?
I downloaded them but have not listened yet. Bubba could handle this one better as I remember him being excited about some type of stick and a hole and his car, I cannot remember exactly now but I was scared at the time.... 😉

Maybe this is the way to go. Just do not play the signed artists. Sure this limits what you can do but then again, it also frees you up. I bet you find some really good music this way and won't have to worry about the RIAA.

You could tell the RIAA to go F&^K themselves 😉

The problem is two fold.

A 100% independent station is a full time job.

And finding the really good indie's is a second full time job unless I just want to through everything up and not care if it's good or not.

But, most people won't listen to a 100% indie station.

I am sure we will figure out something, I just don't know what that is at the moment.

There are several PSAs here that are available to use for letting the listeners know about this issue. I haven't listened to them yet however.

http://wzfb.com/savenetradio/


The scariest part of this is the retroactive to 2006 part. It shouldn't be legal (and hopefully will be challenged in court) to say that someone is paying one rate and then after the fact change it on them.

grrrrrrrrrrrrr... 😡

Atomm wrote:
The problem is two fold.

A 100% independent station is a full time job.

And finding the really good indie's is a second full time job unless I just want to through everything up and not care if it's good or not.

But, most people won't listen to a 100% indie station.

I am sure we will figure out something, I just don't know what that is at the moment.

Can't you use some software, maybe away from Live365, that listeners can rate the songs? Let them sort out the good and bad. Put it here and link from Live365 or whatever. You may now be able to get away from them totally.

As for most won't listen, man you may not have a choice. It may be that or nothing 🙁

Paladin wrote:
I bet there are many many songs that you could put up there that are royalty free. I bet there are a lot of independent artists that would love some air play. Didn't you just get a 1 GB+ file of Free MP3's?
I downloaded them but have not listened yet. Bubba could handle this one better as I remember him being excited about some type of stick and a hole and his car, I cannot remember exactly now but I was scared at the time.... 😉

Maybe this is the way to go. Just do not play the signed artists. Sure this limits what you can do but then again, it also frees you up. I bet you find some really good music this way and won't have to worry about the RIAA.

You could tell the RIAA to go F&^K themselves 😉

I think trying to find non-RIAA artists is certainly an option to pursue. While that 1GB+ file includes "free" mp3s, it just means that they were giving them away. We would still need to pay royalties if we broadcast them in many cases. I'm sure that some of the artists are not RIAA members, but many are.


This website can help find if a particular artist is RIAA or not: http://www.riaaradar.com/

After browsing that radar site for a few minutes I see that several of the record labels that I am playing artists from are "RIAA Safe" - I'll have to do some investigating to see how many songs I'd have to pull to make GR2 100% RIAA free.

But the thing with this legislation or at least the last time around was that the RIAA was lobbying. They weren't making the rules, they were pushing congress to make them. So although going RIAA free is good, they are regulating ALL internet broadcasts, whether they be RIAA songs or not.

Bubbaspanky wrote:
But the thing with this legislation or at least the last time around was that the RIAA was lobbying. They weren't making the rules, they were pushing congress to make them. So although going RIAA free is good, they are regulating ALL internet broadcasts, whether they be RIAA songs or not.

Are you serious? Man, so much for any freedom these days.

Yea, Bubba's right. I sent an email to a big broadcasters list I am on to clarify this and that is exactly what came back. This board was set up to regulate all streaming audio, regardless of whether or not it is an RIAA band.

I think it's a bunch of crap. We know they aren't paying the indies.

I have an idea that I hope will bring in a bit more money each month to offset the streaming costs. I'm going to see if any bands are interested in a pay to play scenario where they pay a small fee, say $50 and get added to the stations, plus a spotlight on our homepage. I don't know if it will go over, but I'm hoping It's cheap enough to garner some interest from the smaller labels pushing their bands.

Just read this, Hope they have some luck!
Linky

NPR Takes First Step To Reverse Internet Royalty Rate Decision
March 15, 2007

After the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) decided to drastically increase the royalties paid to musicians and record labels for streaming songs online, National Public Radio (NPR) will begin fighting the decision on Friday, March 16 by filing a petition for reconsideration with the CRB panel. The suggested new rates would increase to $.0008 per-play for 2006 (retroactively), $.0011 for 2007, $.0014 in 2008, $.0018 in 2009 and $.0019 for 2010, which could put some Internet broadcasters out of business and force public radio stations to quit streaming online.

"This is a stunning, damaging decision for public radio and its commitment to music discovery and education, which has been part of our tradition for more than half a century," said NPR's VP of Communications Andi Sporkin. "Public radio’s agreements on royalties with all such organizations, including the RIAA, have always taken into account our public service mission and non-profit status. These new rates, at least 20 times more than what stations have paid in the past, treat us as if we were commercial radio – although by its nature, public radio cannot increase revenue from more listeners or more content, the factors that set this new rate. Also, we are being required to pay an internet royalty fee that is vastly more expensive than what we pay for over-the-air use of music, although for a fraction of the over-the-air audience."

Public radio station WXPN/Philadelphia sent out an e-mail to its members explaining that, "With three distinct streams of our own (WXPN, Y-Rock On XPN, XPoNential Music), XPN is doing all we can to ensure that the fees our public radio colleagues and we pay for playing music over the Internet remain fair to both the stations and the performers. By our estimates, WXPN could be paying about $1 million a year in royalties under the CRB's ruling. That could mean the end of streaming."

There also has been a Web site set up, SaveTheStream.org, where supporters can sign a petition to Congress asking them to help the Internet radio industry, and also leave comments about why Internet radio is important and how listening to it affects their music purchasing habits. The site also includes press coverage and FAQs about the issue.

Sporkin concluded, "This decision penalizes public radio stations for fulfilling their mandate, it penalizes emerging and non-mainstream musical artists who have always relied on public radio for visibility and ultimately it penalizes the American public, whose local station memberships and taxes will be necessary to cover the millions of dollars that will now be required as payment. On behalf of the public radio system, NPR will pursue all possible action to reverse this decision, which threatens to severely reduce local stations’ public service and limit the reach of the entire music community. NPR will begin on Friday, March 16 by filing a petition for reconsideration with the CRB panel, the first step in this process. We ask that the online royalties be returned to their historic arrangement and that public radio can continue to provide its vital service to music discovery.”

Techdirt wrote:Judge Says Too Bad To Webcasters Upset About New Webcast Rates
from the sorry,-nothing-can-be-done dept

Last month, when the RIAA pushed through new webcasting royalty rates that were clearly designed to kill off a lot of webcasters, many people said not to worry, that the whole thing was just part of a negotiation. While the Copyright Royalty Board finally noticed that people weren't too happy about the new rates and agreed to hold some hearings, today they rejected those complaints and said that they won't change the rates, and everyone better pay up by May 15th. Webcasters are now looking to appeal to both the Appeals Court as well as Congress -- but recognize that either move will probably take a while, and go well beyond the May 15th deadline. The end result, of course, is actually going to hurt the music industry greatly. Webcasting has always been a huge promotional driver for artists -- especially niche artists who wouldn't get any publicity any other way. The recording industry apparently still hasn't figured out that it can expand its market by letting people promote the content for it. Instead, it wants to charge for that promotion, in a short-sighted effort to charge for every use of the content, even ones that expand the market and allow the overall industry to make much more money.

🙁 Sounds like we're screwed.

Yea, things are quite bleak.....

http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/004125.html

The next step is to appeal to a higher court. The good news is this court won't be three hand picked RIAA lackeys.

I am exploring other options, but it doesn't look good.