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Print E-mail del.icio.us 11 comment(s) - last by BladeVenom.. on Jun 6 at 9:03 PM
Just another organization wanting to fight what it believes to be unfair business practices

This whole issue surrounding the Internet radio royalty increase has me rather bummed out.  The current royalty payment plan has smaller webcasters paying a portion of their revenue towards royalties -- usually in the range of 10 to 12 percent.  However, the approved royalties would force them to pay every time a song is heard, along with a minimum fee per channel.  This increase will force smaller stations straight out of business -- and it is scheduled to take place on July 15.

At the moment, the controversy surrounds royalties that deal strictly with digital transmission of music, which includes Internet and satellite radio.  XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio currently have their own agreements with the RIAA, but are having the agreements renegotiated.

Live365 is the latest Internet radio company to join the cause.  In a press release sent to media contacts, Mark Lam, Live365 CEO, is the latest person who wants to see something be done to stop this madness.

"Make no mistake, we want to pay a fair royalty to artists,” Lam said. “We have been paying songwriters for their copyright royalties for years and you don't hear complaints about that.  But the new rates are insanely high and will kill Internet radio.”

As someone who listens to Internet radio daily, I definitely don't want to see many of the smaller stations vanish due to what many considers to be a greedy organization.

For those keeping score at home, Live365, National Public Radio, Yahoo, AOL, and RealNetworks are on the growing list of companies protesting the royalty increase.  The next several months should prove to be rather interesting.

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We must fight.
By excrucio on 6/2/2007 8:48:47 PM , Rating: 5
You know what, these guys all they want is money money money. Fee for each song, are you MADD?! Insane?? that is from 100 to 500% more than the FM and AM stations, which is only 7.5% of their revenue.

quote:
OTHER FACTS:
- Terrestrial AM and FM stations in the USA pay absolutely nothing, for recording industry royalties due to a law made in consideration of promotion value that playing provides in return.

- Satellite Radio services pay 7.5% of revenue.

- So why must Internet Radio pay something that translates to 100-500% of revenue?

That is the most pathetic thing ever.

Everyone that loves the online music and listen to a small station such as di.fm please join
us to pass an act called the Internet Radio Act Equality

http://www.savenetradio.org




RE: We must fight.
By excrucio on 6/2/2007 8:49:35 PM , Rating: 2
Correction Internet Radio Equality Act

idk what i was thinking..


RE: We must fight.
By Ringold on 6/3/2007 3:30:54 AM , Rating: 3
I don't know how popular this internet radio stuff is, but I'd never heard of it being a cash mint. I think RIAA has the process backwards. One gleefully ignore things like this until they're making huge amounts of money in an established business model and then go in and try to extract blood! At this stage in the game I'd think it'd be rather like getting blood from a turnip as they say. Unless revenues are impressive and claims of closing up shop aren't more than just desperate pleas to try to save their comfy profit margins then destroying a niche market makes it rather hard to extract much from it in the future.

But if the RIAA wants to diminish future revenues, hey, they're only harming themselves in the long run. Maybe this is in fact genius on their part; make the picture even more bleak so when they go hat in hand to Congress and complain of piracy (when the real problem is with the 1990s business model in the 21st century world) they'll look even more pathetic.


RE: We must fight.
By bolders on 6/4/2007 8:12:35 AM , Rating: 3
I have a friend that listens to internet radio almost exclusively (paradise I think) as a result he does not buy CDs anymore. If this behaviour is indicative of other internet radio users then I could see how this would upset the RIAA.
We all know that the RIAA would go to extreme lengths to protect their precious CD sales even if it means screwing their customers.
Perhaps this latest action is just bully boy tactics by the RIAA to remove competition, which allows them to keep treating their customers like dirt and get away with it. if there is no other outlet to listen to popular music than through RIAA approved sources they can effectively charge what they like and implement whatever DRM measures the law will allow them to get away with - Without competition to keep the RIAA customer focused I think that we will end up getting less value for our money when buying music and the RIAA will get richer.

It’s a shame that it has got to the point where we have to give up something we love to demonstrate our un-acceptance of the current situation in the music industry. I know there are independent labels out there and some great music that’s not affiliated to the RIAA but there is mainstream music that I really like too. However if I want to show that I am unhappy with the way that the music industry perceives its customers I must forgo this pleasure :(
At what point did music stop being about musicians and their listeners.


RE: We must fight.
By Ringold on 6/4/2007 12:54:27 PM , Rating: 2
I dont disagree really, I just dont understand the business sense of crushing a future revenue stream.

RIAA: If you read this, your lawyers are screwing you; stuff like this serves their interests (fees) and not yours (long term profits). Less lawyers, RIAA, more economists. I'm free (for the right price) if you need me. :D


RE: We must fight.
By TomZ on 6/5/2007 9:07:29 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
I have a friend that listens to internet radio almost exclusively (paradise I think) as a result he does not buy CDs anymore.

That's not the norm. Most people, when they listen to Internet radio, buy downloads/CDs of the artists that are played on the radio station. It is no different than terrestrial radio in that respect. Big record companies should therefore recognize this and join the cause to keep Internet radio alive.

By the way, I listen to woxy.com all day every day. I can't imagine not having a station like that to listen to while I work. It would be dull and boring.


RE: We must fight.
By christojojo on 6/5/2007 12:24:28 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
I have a friend that listens to internet radio almost exclusively (paradise I think) as a result he does not buy CDs anymore. If this behaviour is indicative of other internet radio users then I could see how this would upset the RIAA.


I listen to Live365 and I listened to regular radio alot until most stations in Buffalo, NY went to that lousy formula pragraming, (arrrg). I have and probablely will continue to buy music CDs, (exclusively to date), that I find entertaining. I will not buy that 'one day one hit' stuff that they sometimes hide in a cd full of garbage though.


RE: We must fight.
By BladeVenom on 6/6/2007 9:03:20 PM , Rating: 1
I know I've posted this before, but it's a must read for anyone interested in music. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/24/141326/870


don't forget...
By One43637 on 6/3/2007 7:57:25 AM , Rating: 2
... about Pandora also. I've received an email regarding the absurd increase in royalties.




RE: don't forget...
By HaZaRd2K6 on 6/3/2007 6:12:49 PM , Rating: 2
Me too. And now because I'm in Canada they've totally cut off my access to it. I've discovered some of my (now) favourite artists through Pandora and other Internet radio sites and to have them switched off would be catastrophic. It's absolutely insane.

On another (unrelated) note, I also just received a little pamphlet from my ISP saying that they're changing part of their terms of service so that they lie outside government regulations. Read: they're planning on implementing QoS services and making us pay more to receive the same quality service we get now. Net neutrality issues are everywhere.


By christojojo on 6/5/2007 12:39:50 PM , Rating: 2
Just speculation, but, maybe they want to put the small stations out of business. Most of the RIAA members own huge stakes in the other formats. I'm sure that internet radio cuts into theoretical profits pretty deep.

For those of you, who are not familiar with my viewpoint on lost profits here it goes..

They have people calculate the how much money they think a product should make. - Ideal income

Project how many of the products that were not sold were due to bootlegging (pirating?).

Take that total, multiply it by ideal list price.

Disregard the fact that many bootlegs are bought buy people who could never afford it at 'corprately reasonable' prices. (Yes, I know everyone of those poor people could instantly get a doctoral in electrical engineering and earn a fifty million dollar a year salary, super easy instantly. Seriously, lets assume that facts don't change about a poor person over night - "poor people can't afford alot period.")

Complain to everybody about these theoretically lost profits and increase prices with that justification.

Which in turn increases the likelihood of more bootlegs.




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