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Internet radio broadcasters dealt setback == On to Public Policy
by Rattle at 2:34 am EDT, Apr 18, 2007

Internet radio broadcasters were dealt a setback Monday when a panel of copyright judges threw out requests to reconsider a ruling that hiked the royalties they must pay to record companies and artists.
A broad group of public and private broadcasters, including radio stations, small startup companies, National Public Radio and major online sites like Yahoo Inc. and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, had objected to the new royalties set March 2, saying they would force a drastic cutback in services that are now enjoyed by some 50 million people.
In the latest ruling, the Copyright Royalty Board judges denied all motions for rehearing and also declined to postpone a May 15 deadline by which the new royalties will have to be collected.

This last week, I discussed the current state of Internet radio with a representative from Clear Channel. He told me that they were against this, yet they have no desire to use any of their power to influence the situation. Conviction is either not a word in their vocabulary, or there are other interests in play.

Internet radio has been dead for awhile. This nail is being hammered long after the coffin is secure. We need to ask why Internet radio had to die, as it's death was clearly consensual.

The economics here are completely screwed.

We are at the point where the only avenues available are those of public policy. Whenever I discuss these issues with players in the music industry -- and I do, regularly -- they don't understand this. There is a great fear and apprehension among those in the music business to approach problems from the angle of public policy. I'm starting to seriously wonder why...

Internet radio. Blanket licensing for digital music downloads. Statutory licensing for sampling. Et cetera -- Endless list of issues...

Was pushing an audio stream over a network pipe too extreme for incumbent interests? I know what answer you'd get if you ask Voynage.

This just pisses me off... I clearly see the solution given by the incumbent media powers: "Shut it off until we figure it out."

If this approach had merit, sales would not be down 13% this year.

Update: SoundScan turned the industry on its tail in the 90's because it had a picture that was more complete than that of anyone else. That is not the case today. The complete picture is currently more absent than it has ever been.

RE: Internet radio broadcasters dealt setback == On to Public Policy
by Decius at 3:43 am EDT, Apr 19, 2007

Rattle wrote:
This last week, I discussed the current state of Internet radio with a representative from Clear Channel. He told me that they were against this, yet they have no desire to use any of their power to influence the situation. Conviction is either not a word in their vocabulary, or there are other interests in play.

Yeah, like they aren't the guys getting squeezed out of the market. They aren't against what they aren't trying to influence.

Internet radio has been dead for awhile. This nail is being hammered long after the coffin is secure. We need to ask why Internet radio had to die, as it's death was clearly consensual.

If you call having the DMCA rammed down your throat consensual.

We are at the point where the only avenues available are those of public policy. Whenever I discuss these issues with players in the music industry -- and I do, regularly -- they don't understand this. There is a great fear and apprehension among those in the music business to approach problems from the angle of public policy. I'm starting to seriously wonder why...

What part of the music industry? Internet Radio is dead because of the constraints and economic situation created by public policy which was built on behalf of a music industry that wanted to see it dead. If they are gun shy today it is because certain senators were A-1 pissed when they shut down all the small internet broadcasters for an entire summer. Congress doesn't want to give them anything else because they've been given so much against so many people's protests and they have managed to do so little with it.

Was pushing an audio stream over a network pipe too extreme for incumbent interests?

Yup! The last thing they want is all these little radio stations and little indy labels sucking up market share. They want big pop corporate rock and they want to keep the lid sealed down on any culture that might rise up outside of it. The problem is that listening to music just isn't that compelling as an entertainment option anymore when I've got DVDs and video games and 1000 TV channels, so they've created this soulless market and the customer actually does have the means to simply walk away from the table.

I'm not really sure that the clear channels and universals of the world have the will to fix this. Their interests are aligned 180 degrees backward, and what is going to happen is that something new is going to come along and fuck them. Its going to be very slow, because frankly, music is part of culture, and the music they control cannot work right, and it takes a very long time for a different, parallel culture to develop totally independently. But it will happen.

What is happenning now is that they are slowly dying. Music is part of being human. Music won't die. But they will, and eventually the demand for music will pull the right answer up from their ashes.