The saga continues - Ignoring all rationality and responding only to the lobbying of the RIAA, an arbitration committee in Washington DC has drastically increased the licensing fees Internet radio sites must pay to stream songs. Internet Radio site's fees will triple, and are retroactive for eighteen months! Left unchanged by Congress, radio stations like Pandora will go off the air - forever. I just received an email from John Walter yesterday saying that they have already turned off Pandora in Spain - so this threat is REAL. Internet Radio Will Die - because of the RIAA (and the boatloads of money they give to our congressman and senators). So we have to do something.
Call your Congressional representatives today and ask them to become co-sponsors of the bill. It will only take a few minutes and you can find your Congresspersons and their phone numbers by entering your zip code here.
For other people in the Boston/Massachusetts area -
Senator John F. Kerry: (202) 224-2742
Senator Edward M. Kennedy: (202) 224-4543
Call them and tell them to force a vote today on the Internet Radio Equality Act. Let's shut down their phone lines - just like their inaction will shut down internet radio.
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Hi, it's Tim one more time...
Disaster looms! Yesterday a federal court denied a plea to delay the massive increase in rates webcasters must pay the record labels. This means that, absent immediate Congressional action, the new ruinous royalty rates will be going into effect on Monday threatening the future of all internet radio.
This is a very dire situation and I'm writing to ask one more time for your support. The effort you've made over the past four months has been extraordinary and has forced the rapid introduction of the bill, but the committee process has been sluggish and we need to once again remind the representatives of the urgency of this issue. This is perhaps the most important phone call you can make for us.
Please call your Congressional representatives in the House and the Senate and ask them to force immediate action on the Internet Radio Equality Act and bring the bill to a vote. It is critical that their phones begin ringing off the hook starting early in the morning. If it's busy, please try again later.
Congressperson James P. McGovern: (202)225-6101Senator John F. Kerry: (202) 224-2742
Senator Edward M. Kennedy: (202) 224-4543
I'm sorry that we have to keep asking you for this - but it's our only recourse. We are no match for the legal and legislative strength of the RIAA and we need your help.
Thank you again. Gratefully,
-Tim Westergren
(Pandora founder)
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Comments: 8
"I remember Will's email the other day calling to block this from happening,
but it appears too late. But blows my mind is that these fees will be
collected retrospectively for all of 2006, so they are not only shutting
down these companies, they are bankrupting most of their owners.
How can you be so stupid and cut your own throat for short term gain?"
also, SoundExchange, the agency which collects internet music royalties, has said today that it will delay these collections on small broadcasters while a solution is worked out, now that a decision recognizing the appropriate rights is in place.
Besides, doublecharging the flow of information to impede its flow is not just restrictive and bound to failure, its just wrongheaded.
What the RIAA's actions will do is shut down internet radio.
For more information on how to contact your local representatives visit: http://www.savenetradio.org/
The future of Internet radio is in immediate danger. Royalty rates for webcasters have been drastically increased by a recent ruling and are due to go into effect on July 15 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!). If the increased rates remain unchanged, the majority of webcasters will go bankrupt and silent on this date. Internet radio needs your help! The Internet Radio Equality Act has recently been introduced in both the House (H.R. 2060) and Senate (S. 1353) to save the Internet radio industry. Please call your senators and your representative to ask them to co-sponsor the Internet Radio Equality Act!
listen. before there was a music industry, there was Music.
the so-called industry is distribution, pure and simple.
that the distribution paradigm changed
has the industry all aflutter: what to do? what to do?
in the days of power,
when the industry was the source of all we listened to,
good and bad,
it was THEY who determined who was worthy.
so the argument about musicians being fairly compensated is only partly correct.
please do not forget all the musicians who, for whatever reason,
were NEVER heard, never recorded, never promoted......
THAT is the music industry struggling for a rationale to exist
in this day when distribution is something else altogether.