Will Internet Radio die on July 15th?
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If you love the freedom and variety of Internet Radio, today is not going to be a good day for you. Today is Internet Radio Day Of Silence. Webcasters everywhere have gone silent, not as a way to annoy loyal listeners, but as a way to encourage us all to act on a bill that could silence web radio forever.
July 15th is a day looming on the horizon for Internet Radio. Royalty rates will increase three-fold that day due to the single-minded lobbying of the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). What's more, the fees are retroactive to January 1st, and such fees will cripple many online stations. My favorite, Pandora, posted a letter about this whole incident here , and thus my Macintosh is sadly silent today.
Web radio is a wonderful musical resource. With so many genres to choose from, it gives consumers variety and freedom. It's also great for up-and-coming bands, who often can't break through the red tape of traditional commercial radio stations. I, for one, would sorely miss Internet Radio if it were to wither and die. And without your help, it may just do that.
What can you do?
First, visit savenetradio.org and read all about the campaign. Once your blood is good and boiling, find the names and numbers of your local Senators and Representatives and tell them to become co-sponsors of the Internet Radio Equality Act.
As I often say, power to the people. Let's get Internet Radio a fair deal folks, and tell as many people as you can about this. I certainly don't want to be writing its obituary in a month's time. Thanks.
Powerful NEW photo by Wiseacre . Thank you (I changed the old photo due to a few lovely comments. I do hope you got the point of the article and did your piece to help though).
Tagged: Consumer Affairs, Congress, Internet radio, music, pandora.com, royalty fees., savenetradio.org, senators
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It looks like it says BYUSA- the name of BYU's student government. Am I right, or is it referring to something else?
I admit, I'm curious about the BYUSA picture in front of the BYU library.
I'm rather familiar with the incident that was protested after the student elections a year ago, and it has absolutely nothing to do with your topic.
Being silenced has absolutely nothing to do with Internet Radio being silenced? I see. Well, in the interests of being fair, I'll change it. Thanks for the great comments!
One of my favorite internet stations shut down recently, and I was so sad to see it go! I can't imagine losing all variety online. All over the place, I'm seeing articles, blogs, threads, etc that talk about how one-sided the RIAA is, and how much they suck. But how uphill is this battle to prevent this law from going into effect?
first off whoever posted the first 2 comment must have add cause there way off topic here, but i can fix that, the only reason this is happening is because the government is so corrupt that their industry puppet masters are dancing to their tunes. how are they gonna pass a bill that isnt fair to the american people? last time i check they worked for us right? so that leads me to believe that they dont care and used us to get to their current posistion so they can sh** all over us and i for one think its bullsh**.If the american people are talking and there only listening to the record execs then maybe we should kick there no good ass's out of office. I say we stand the f* up and show em that its about that time, its like mr smith goes to washington, i dont know how many of you have seen that but i think everyone should. i think america needs a good revolution, time to refresh the tree of liberty and all that. take out this low down dictatorship, since we stopped being democratic a long time ago. I mean jesus, like bush really won all those votes. Hes a f*in moron, he waved at stevie wonder...HES F*IN BLIND. Remember people, the revolution will be televised
I've been broadcasting on Live365 for over 4 years. I started amidst the whole file sharing crackdown, when the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP) decided that Internet broadcasts were promoting piracy when, in reality, they actually were good for business because the stations provided exposure to many styles of music you might not get to hear on your local radio station. Thus, people (like me) might purchase music based on what they listened to on their favorite Internet station.
I think enough people protested, at the time, and stations went back "on the air" (so to speak).
Enough voices can make a change.
I have found some amazing music through Internet radio that is just not played on regular stations. It is absolutely a friend of the music business. Whether it's a friend of big business, and the backers of Britney's next crappy album that will get a gazillion hours of airtime, is another story.
I copied the link and wrote a bulletin about it for people to read (and then link back here to read your blog). Hope you don't mind Paul...I think this is a really urgent issue, and I want as many people to know about it and do something about it as possible.