Webcasters’ D-for-Die day looms
p2pnet news | music:- It’s good news for the “high-tech industry, led by Google Inc”. They’ve, “scored a big victory over incumbent broadband providers this week as draft rules released by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin for a highly anticipated radio-spectrum auction have incorporated many of the high-tech industry’s demands” says Dow Jones Newswires, continuing:
“According to a Federal Communications Commission official, who has seen the rules – which will be released shortly by Martin’s office to the other four commissioners at the agency – the auction of 22 megahertz of spectrum, out of a total 60 megahertz, will have conditions attached to it that may pave the way for Google to acquire spectrum for the first time and would enable the company to begin competing with the large incumbent providers of broadband service.”
But the picture isn’t nearly so rosy at the other end of the spectrum where the small webcasters live.
For them, it’s positively black because Sunday, July 15 looms. On that date a Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) ruling goes into effect and when that happens, many, if not most, of the small broadcasters, who could accurately be described as the true life and soul of online radio, face total shutdown.
On March 2, 2007 the CRB hiked Net radio royalty rates, and not by a few points. They’ll rocket up by between 300% and 1,200%.
“At the request of the Recording Industry Association of America, the CRB ignored the fact that Internet radio royalties were already double what satellite radio pays, and multiplied the royalties even further,” says macadavy on pogge.ca, going on:
The 2005 royalty rate was 7/100 of a penny per song streamed; the 2010 rate will be 19/100 of a penny per song streamed. And for small webcasters that were able to calculate royalties as a percentage of revenue in 2005 – that option was quashed by the CRB, so small webcasters’ royalties will grow exponentially!
Before this ruling was handed down, the vast majority of webcasters were barely making ends meet as Internet radio advertising revenue is just beginning to develop. Without a doubt most Internet radio services will go bankrupt and cease webcasting if this royalty rate is not reversed by the Congress, and webcasters’ demise will mean a great loss of creative and diverse radio. Surviving webcasters will need sweetheart licenses that major record labels will be only too happy to offer, so long as the webcaster permits the major label to control the programming and playlist. Is that the Internet radio you care to hear?
Go give them a listen before their sweet vibe is silenced forever by the greedheads at the RIAA!
“Great quote today in the LA Times by Jay Rosenthal (SoundExchange Board Member and co-legal counsel to the Recording Artists’ Coalition),” says Rusty Hodge.
So what wisdom did Rosenthal have to impart?
To some this may sound crazy, but I sincerely am starting to hate the Internet. I know you see the Internet as some incredible invention that has opened the door to unlimited distribution of music—and your lofty goal is to bring music to as many as possible. But all I see is a tidal wave of artist abuse. And the thought of webcasters emulating the Groskters of the world, and being given a free pass just reinforces my view that the Internet is not becoming a beacon of light, but a cesspool of darkness.
I don’t think it is overstating it by concluding that illegal file sharing is the direct cause of the greatest campaign of copyright infringement in history, and has resulted in the music industry’s being devastated.
“Every day was Christmas for Michael Clark, but now the holiday’s over,” says the Los Angeles Times, going on:
From the attic of his condo in Woodbridge, Va., the 38-year-old Web developer ran an Internet radio station that spun his beloved Christmas carols all year long. Then in March, a panel of federal judges sharply increased the royalty charges for playing music online.
Since then, it’s been one long, silent night for Clark and his hundreds of listeners at christmasmusic247.com. His site and hundreds of other free Internet radio stations already have shut down. Most others say they will stop when the rates kick in Sunday.
“It really isn’t fair,” said Clark, who pulled the plug when he realized he could owe more than $20,000 in royalties if he continued.
Back to Google and the other fat cats, the FCC auction rules, “will determine how the auction of radio spectrum to commercial wireless broadband operators, which, according to an official estimate, could raise as much as $20 billion, [our emphasis] will proceed early next year,” says the Dow Jones story.
“In order to provide wireless broadband or cellular service, companies need spectrum.”
And guess who’s ‘product’ will be aired?
“They hated the cassette recorder,” said Hodges. “They hated the CD Burner. Soon they’ll hate people who hum songs.”
Not soon, Rusty. They hate them already.
Jon Newton - p2pnet
Also See:
Dow Jones Newswires – FCC rules may be big win for Google, July 11, 2007
pogge.ca – Paradise Lost?, June 14, 2007
Rusty Hodge – SoundExchange board member: “I sincerely am starting to hate the Internet”, June 15, 2007
Los Angeles Times – Web DJs silenced by royalty fees, July 11, 2007
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July 13th, 2007 at 1:51 am
These IDIOTS make me sick! They already are trying to shut down everything they don’t agree with, I wonder why THEY have so much power? Oh, yeah, I forgot…MONEY!
July 13th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Ah, it doesn’t just make you sick. It makes the public (and their potential customers) sick of them. They’ve been building ill will for so long they think it will never come home to roost.
I rather think different. I know it has come home to roost with me. I’m rather turned off by the whole business of big music. As a result of not approving of their business methods and products, I’ve ceased to buy from them. I’ve not bought an ablum in all the years since sue’em all started and will continue not to. Since I’ve dropped out of the market for music, I don’t have much desire to check out what is new. That will continue also, I suspect. That’s just my story. I wonder how many more are out there just like me, dropping the whole mess in favor of other forms of entertainment.
I’m quite sure there is a whole new generation starting to see this same thing and with the same resulting lack of desire. That spells the end of big music as we know it in the long run. Back catalogs that no one is interested in isn’t much good if sales dollars can’t be generated from them. Nor is present day music of interest. What little I’ve heard lacks spark, controversy, or even skills that a musician is expected to have. There is no connection to this audience of one.