Idolator
Today is the Day Of Silence for Internet radio stations, and we're wondering how the Idolator readership is involving itself in the (in)action, which is protesting the high royalty rates for online radio that were set by the Copyright Royalty Board last spring. According to the radio industry newsletter RAIN, the SaveNetRadio site, which many of the participating broadcasters have been linking to, has been experiencing crippling delays from users who have been directed there, and switchboards on Capitol Hill have been lighting up with cries of protest. Meanwhile, the sites that aren't participating, like last.fm, are taking some heat from listeners, and other observers are a bit skeptical about the whole protest. If any of you have contacted your legislators, please let us know in comments—especially if any sympathetic switchboard operators have been jonesing for their KEXP fix.
Massive listener support cripples servers, switchboards [RAIN]
Comments
I'm on the air right now and it's a little weird...
It really is a terrifying prospect- when the new rates go into effect on July 15th, it could just plain end internet radio as we know it in one fell swoop.
The Copyright Royalty Board, SoundExchange and the RIAA are full of it- this has nothing to do with protecting artists and everything to do with a desperate attempt to regain their stranglehold on music outlets.
Ugh.
It really is a terrifying prospect.
When the ruling goes into effect on July 15th, internet radio as we know it could be killed in one fell swoop.
The Copyright Royalty Board, the RIAA and SoundExchange are full of it. This has nothing to do with protecting artists and everything to do with a desperate attempt to regain their stranglehold on music outlets.
Ugh.
Man, I love 'FMU.
[blog.wfmu.org]
WFMU got me through the day too. It almost backfired, though; their non-RIAA programming was so good that for a moment I thought, "Hell, we don't even need Soundexchange crap." Then like any good cranky old lady, I called my congresswomen to complain about the rate hike. I hope other people are doing the same and not just letting us old ladies do all the complaining work...
I heard about the rate hike from a couple of different places, including the mailing list for the radio station I volunteer at, and called two senators in Washington. Patty Murray's aide seemed sort of interested in what I had to say. That and the website savenetradio.org made it really easy to do something for a cause I actually care about. (Basically, most of my recreation time is spent listening to music, and I wouldn't have found out about all the music that occupies me without internet streaming and such.) I thought it was really weird that my republican representative supported the bill, but I'm not complaining!
I spent the day working out kinks in my official webpage and playing random trip-hop tracks from my MP3 jukebox. I just missed it completely. But I already signed at least two petitions, so...yeah.
@queensissy: you can't opt out of soundexchange...
Our fearless leaders are totally clueless when it comes to this issue. A couple years back when the new rates were initially being proposed the GM of the station where I was working actually went to Washington to take part in a Congressional committee. Most of the members of Congress couldn't even distinguish between streaming radio and illegal downloading. I think most of them live in a world where the internet is just this mystical thing that tricks children into stealing music, watching porn and being approached by pedophiles.
The music industry just takes advantage of their ignorance and that's how awful laws like the Digital Millenium Copyright Act got passed in the first place.
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