Re: [ARSCLIST] Fw: WAMU 88.5 to Join Webcasters in "Day of Silence" June 26

[Roger and Allison Kulp <thorenstd124@xxxxxxxxx>]

If you truly believe this,you are truly living in the past.As with the old news media model,the old music distribution/royalty/radio airplay model is no more.The wise artists know this,and are undercutting the labels.Anybody can upload music to YouTube or My Space,and potentially have 100,000s of people hear it in the first week alone.If you don't want to upload a whole song or piece,just do like Amazon,and go the snippet/sample route.Sell downloads.Press up limited private issue CDs and vinyl,and sell them exclusively on your site.Sooner or later the labels will realize they can no longer have new music to sell,and will have to hammer out deals with online retailers to sell their back catalogue stuff.Even if its only downloads.The sooner they realize the glory years of the 70s and 80s are never coming back,the better.

The RIAA is dying a slow,painful death,and it is a joy to watch.

Granted this about new music,but there may be ways around this for webcasting.

 Live365 for example,has what they call a VIP membership,that includes each members blanket royalty payment.The cost is minimal,as it's spread out over many members.I don't see what the problem is.Why is this so difficult ? Could somebody enlighten me ?



                                   Roger

Bob Olhsson <olh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: -----Original Message-----
>From Dismuke: "I have no problem with Internet radio stations paying
royalties.  That's not what this is about.  A rational
system of royalties is NOT one which will, from the
very get-go, bankrupt the entities which are supposed
to be paying the royalties.  The purpose of the new
royalty scheme as well as the scheme that the RIAA
backed last time around is to DESTROY Internet radio
and NOT to generate a viable stream of revenue from it
for copyright owners"

These new "royalties" are only a 6% increase in the CAP ON NEGOTIATED
ROYALTIES. They only come into play when the parties can't reach an
agreement and a webcaster wants to go ahead and play an artist's music
without an agreement.

NOBODY was paying the old cap rate and there's no reason to believe anybody
is likely to be paying the new cap, especially if, like you say, it would
bankrupt them. In many cases webcasters can get permission to pay no
royalties at all when it is to the promotional advantage of an artist. This
is a cloaked attempt by the Digital Media Association to impose government
price fixing on the royalties paid to the most popular, lowest common
denominator recording artists instead of allowing them to negotiate for a
fair share of the revenue that their recordings produce for the largest
webcasters.

File "sharing" has already destroyed financial investment in non-mainstream
artists. Any further erosion of the potential income for independent music
could totally eliminate it as an alternative to the music that Wall Street
and Madison Avenue see fit to feed us. By supporting this kind of corporate
welfare, small webcasters are really killing the goose that lays their
golden eggs. At one time we got to hear the best of the best in recording
artists. Today, in too many cases, we're hearing only the best of the
well-heeled because in the US most working class kids can no longer afford
to go out and perform music.

If you really like the new music you hear on commercial radio, by all means
fight for a lower royalty cap. Bankrupting independent new music is a sure
way to perpetuate lots more of the same.
 

Bob Olhsson Audio Mastery, Nashville TN
Mastering, Audio for Picture, Mix Evaluation and Quality Control
Over 40 years making people sound better than they ever imagined!
615.385.8051 http://www.hyperback.com


       
---------------------------------
Got a little couch potato? 
Check out fun summer activities for kids.