Dirtyradio: Is it under threat?
 

http://www.kurthanson.com/archive/ne...07/index.shtml

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).

How does this affect small webcasters?
Webcasters who stream through services like Live365 may be in jeopardy, as such firms' business models probably never envisioned a royalty rate this high. (Live365's royalty obligation for 2006 is running in the range of $350,000 per month, and that's not even addressing the question of the $500 per station mininum!)

Is this the end of Internet radio?
Although this is undeniably a huge victory for the legal departments of record labels (or at least for the lawyers at their industry trade association, the RIAA), I doubt that the heads of the record labels and their marketing executives actually want to see Internet radio driven out of business. (This may be a case of "Be careful what you wish for, you may get it.")

Re: Dirtyradio: Is it under threat?
 

i know. this is VERY scary. I would be devistated. I think they realize that the future is going to be very different than their past radio programs filled with commercials the like... Once we get wifi-max in cities and we can internet radio to our cars the labels will be very scared (as the content is done by ... scott... instead of by media companies who own the radio stations who are willing to give shit music high play to peak interest in certains tracks and the like...

Anyways, I don't know if it will go through or not, but if it does, it does sound like a lot of the radio will have to go offshore to some data haven or shut down...

Re: Dirtyradio: Is it under threat?
 

Back to the good old bad old days of pirate stations maybe?:(

This is bad news as internet radio is the only decent radio worth listening to. :mad:

Re: Dirtyradio: Is it under threat?
 

the discussion is not really new, it has been going on for a couple of years now. basically, everyone streaming (copyrighted) music from his pc to an audience has to pay for it. theoretically.

Re: Dirtyradio: Is it under threat?
 

ya, but they want to increase the price enormously (again) and it would effectively price them completely out of the market... right now, it (i think) is fairly affordable...

if i recall, somafm will have to pay something like 22 million a year for it's 9 stations... whereas FM stations pay significantly less than that, as they can be controlled for the most part

Re: Dirtyradio: Is it under threat?
 

*shrug*

There's a few major label artists in the library but for the most part our library is made up of independents and bedroom composers. I've received nice emails from larger indie labels like Warp and Soma and all kinds of "PLEASE PLAY MY MUSIC" emails from smaller labels and artists. I don't think we'll ever run into a problem.

Ironically, until recently the former head of Warner Music Publishing was sitting about fifty feet away from me. :)

Re: Dirtyradio: Is it under threat?
 

what do they think about palying leaked material? ;)

Re: Dirtyradio: Is it under threat?
 

I dunno, although I imagine they have far less issues with music played before release dates at 96k than people downloading the mp3s at 320. I mean, what dinosaur is out there these days that doesn't understand the reality of modern music distribution in light of the Internet these days?

Look, the short answer from my perspective is "I don't care". It's a simple operation that I've run for almost a decade simply because I like music. The moment it gets more complicated than it is now I'll simply take it down and that'll be that.

Re: Dirtyradio: Is it under threat?
 

answer: RIAA and everyone they represent.

Re: Dirtyradio: Is it under threat?
 

so you pay a monthly royality thing right now i am guessing? and that goes to the riaa? basically if this thing goes through could you just cut out the 5% of the music that is on a major label and just play independent stuff knowing that they A: want you to play their music, and B: don't have the time, money etc to bother...?

Re: Dirtyradio: Is it under threat?
 

I should have qualified that with independent label dinosaur. :)
Yeah, that's basically the solution we've toyed around with for a long time.

Re: Dirtyradio: Is it under threat?
 

Hah exactly my thoughts.

Re: Dirtyradio: Is it under threat?
 

How does the system work now? I remember at my radio station, in order keep our stream we had to make sure we didn't play more than 2 or 3 songs from an artist in row, and less than a certain number per hour, and all sorts of things.

I just remembered, our manager had a Save Our Streams website and was a big advocate, but at present the website is a bit lacking.

I really don't listen to internet radio at all, to be honest. I wish they didn't ban it at work, otherwise I would.

Re: Dirtyradio: Is it under threat?
 

important links:

save our internet radio

reclaim the media

net neutrality

fuck the RIAA

:)

Re: Dirtyradio: Is it under threat?
 

kinda related....ninja tune is adding a sheet with the following lines to each promo cd:

"Before you copy, burn or upload these recordings, please take a moment to think about what you`re doing and what you`re not doing. You are not "sticking it to the Man."You are not "striking a blow against outdated copyright laws." You are not "liberating content from the corporations". Nor are you "promoting our records for us." (...) By all means pirate the latest corporate spew from major Central. But don`t pretend it`s the same thing as copying this. Because, one day, when we`re all gone and all that`s left is two or three giant multionational conglomerates putting out lowest-common-denominator bollocks, you`ll wish you hadn`t. (...)"

Re: Dirtyradio: Is it under threat?
 

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...royalties.html

SoundExchange offers olive branch to small webcasters over royalties...

Smaller webcasters will not have to pay higher royalties on Internet broadcasts, at least not until 2010. SoundExchange, the licensing authority backed by the Big Four labels, has relented on its desire for higher royalties and announced that it will allow smaller webcasters to continue to pay royalties at the same rates they have since 2002. Larger, commercial webcasters aren't getting any love from SoundExchange; they will have to begin paying the higher rates beginning next month, which SoundExchange says will ensure that the "subsidy" will be available only to small webcasters who are "forming or strengthening their business."