War Declared on Radio

So, I walked into work this morning, kicked off my shoes and tossed on my headphones, fully prepared to launch into a day of slack, internet surfing and, yes, frantic instant messaging fueled by the sultry sounds of internet radio.

Of course, as fate would have it, when I pressed the "make ears go boom" button, I instead got a little pop-up telling me today is a blackout day in protest of a recent rate hike that basically will force most internet radio stations to shut down because they can't pay the bills.

The protest is annoying as hell, since it means I'll have to listen to the sounds of co-workers speaking to me all day, but it's completely valid. Several cuss words after the jump.

The law is fantastic. It protects people from each other and I'm glad we have it. But here's what these motherfucking asshole bastards at the RIAA refuse to understand...

You are NOT losing money. People steal music because it is too expensive. People listen to online radio because customized stations are better than on-air radio. If you... and this is important... continue to use the laws to shut down every way for people to get music aside from Best Buy, Virgin Music Festivals and Clear Channel Radio stations, people will:

• not discover new music or buy new albums
• learn to hate you even more out of spite and
• find more ways to steal from you.

Why is this hard to understand? The RIAA are like those guys that are afraid their wives are going to cheat on them, so they lock them in their houses and never let them go anywhere, basically guaranteeing that, if the wives ever get the opportunity, they're going to hook up with the gardener. Maddening.

Comments

[Art Vandelay]

The music industry is a fucking mess right now. I have Sirius so I don't need to worry about this stuff but I have no idea how record stores stay in business. I haven't bought an album in years. Terrestrial radio doesn't play good new music anymore and the single most powerful force in the industry is a TV show featuring a bunch of karaoke singers.

[Assman]

I have Sirius so I don't need to worry about this stuff

Sure you do. It may not impact you directly, but if the ball isn't stopped before it gets too heavy, it may.

What happens when they decide in a few years that they want a larger cut of radio royalties and Sirius has to get bumped up to $75 a month?

[Art Vandelay]

Well, I would hope they realize that going from $12 a month to $75 would be bad bidness but as of today, it's real hard to get fired up about not having enough music access. All of the channels that we used prior to free streaming radio still exist. Isn't that sort of a luxury? I mean, Chris Benoit's kid is dead god dammit!!!! Where is the outrage!!!!!!

[Assman]

All of the channels that we used prior to free streaming radio still exist.

Well, that's a long story. They exist, but they have more and more controls placed on them that prevent them from playing the sort of content that you had to get Sirius radio to listen to anymore. Basically, if you want to hear music that isn't just a pre-fab commercial for the bands that the companies want you to buy (rather than the ones you might actually want to hear), you need either college / indie radio, satellite or the internet.

[Art Vandelay]

That's a fair point. I actually wouldn't even know what terrestrial radio is like these days. I have no reason to turn it on.

[Crazed Dingus]

Terrsetrial radio is full of commercials because radio sations cant pay for the songs, and the songs sound like shit because they just keep using the same format for all of them.

the RIAA is trying to put controls on something in which they have no domain, the internet is used today as a source for the FREE exchange of information. sure some companies like AOL and Verizion like to charge an arm and a leg to get to it, but still, when you get to the internet, its supose to be a hub of free information. the RIAA is trying to take the free out of it because of the money.

greed is what will bring this house down around our feet.

[Crazed Dingus]

Terrsetrial radio is full of commercials because radio sations cant pay for the songs, and the songs sound like shit because they just keep using the same format for all of them.

the RIAA is trying to put controls on something in which they have no domain, the internet is used today as a source for the FREE exchange of information. sure some companies like AOL and Verizion like to charge an arm and a leg to get to it, but still, when you get to the internet, its supose to be a hub of free information. the RIAA is trying to take the free out of it because of the money.

greed is what will bring this house down around our feet.

[Crazed Dingus]

Terrsetrial radio is full of commercials because radio sations cant pay for the songs, and the songs sound like shit because they just keep using the same format for all of them.

the RIAA is trying to put controls on something in which they have no domain, the internet is used today as a source for the FREE exchange of information. sure some companies like AOL and Verizion like to charge an arm and a leg to get to it, but still, when you get to the internet, its supose to be a hub of free information. the RIAA is trying to take the free out of it because of the money.

greed is what will bring this house down around our feet.

[Crazed Dingus]

fucking hell, and the internet gives me the +1 loser of the day...

[jackie]

"fucking hell, and the internet gives me the +1 loser of the day..."

Helluva an entrance, Dingus. You clearly feel very, very, very strongly about your beliefs.

[jackie]

And I also think you're a little premature with that award, Dingus. Take a read through the Benoit thread like two posts below and let us know if you still annoint yourself the winner.

[Crazed Dingus]

ok, i was just a little.

[howard in nyc]

death throes of a dinosaur industry. soon there won't be any major labels at all.

[BillCross]

Actually it's CARP (copyright and royalties arbitration panel) and the Librarian of Congress, not the RIAA. Shortly after the DMCA (digital millennium copyright act) declared music on the internet to be a performance not an advertisment like a song on the radio, CARP put forth a similar proposal to that put forth recently. There were sufficient complaints to Congress (this was around 2000 or so -- looks more like 2002) that they passed a short term bill allowing small internet stations to calculate their royalty rates more or less like radio does or pay a small set fee. This bill sunset in 2006, and so CARP put forth the recent royalty rates. the problem mainly is that each listener is considered to be a performance. thus at $0.01 per performance (half the original CARP proposal) with 100 listeners you would pay $1 per song, which doesn't sound too bad, until you think that 100 listeners isn't really that many for a good station and in 24 hours one can easily play 400 songs. The costs really add up (1000 listeners would be $4000 per day). under the previous rules the broadcaster would have paid $500 per year at least for the smaller number of listener places.

interestingly when radio first started going this same argument came up. Radio stations played songs in the public domain until the equivalent of the RIAA gave up. of course our government at that time was headed by FDR, who was significantly more public spirited than the market theists that run/ran the Bush and to a lesser extent the Clinton administrations

[BillCross]

I should add that this is retroactive to 2005 (I think 2005, it's definitely retroactive), so even an average 100 person a day station would owe $25,000 or so on July 15.