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A birthday party? Please make sure, should you perform "Happy Birthday to You" in public, to wire the appropriate royalties to Warner.

I looked at Warner Music's website, this is their contact page: WMG Contact Us. I figure it can't hurt to politely express how you think free streaming improves their product and helps their bottom line. At the worst they'll send out a bunch of form emails about how hard it is to make profit these days and give you a good laugh. If you care enough to contact them, you are probably a good customer to keep happy, as you care about their product enough you likely talk about it (i.e. you like to talk about your favorite bands). They're a big company that probably thinks their marketing department can make up for any amount of angry customers- at the least we can confirm if that's true.

WMG contact form: http://www.wmg.com/contact
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Sect. 107. Limitations on exclusive rights: fair use

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A [17 USCS Sects. 106, 106A], the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include--

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;

(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

i'm not sure if roadrunner qualifies anymore. the majority of roadrunner's parent company (Roadrunner Music Group B.V) was bought by Warner Music Group (one of RIAA's big 4) back in January (source), though i honestly have no idea how involved they are with anything to do with the RIAA, financially or otherwise.

02/06/07

First Major Music Content Agreement for Leading Online Social Music Network

Warner Music Group Corp. (NYSE: WMG) and Last.fm, the social music networking site, today announced a broad partnership to offer WMG's renowned music catalog available over multiple services offered by Last.fm in the U.S. and Europe. This announcement marks Last.fm's first content agreement with a major media company and underscores WMG's commitment to offering consumers unique ways to experience its artists' music.

With more than 15 million active users per month currently, Last.fm is a service that analyzes what its users listen to and then presents them with an array of personal recommendations based upon their tastes including custom radio streams, music charts, users with similar tastes, and more.

As part of the partnership, Last.fms music fans will have access to WMG's catalog through Last.fm's free, advertising-supported radio streaming service and its soon-to-be released premium, subscription-based interactive radio. Through a phased rollout, U.S. music fans will have first access to these services with the European markets following suit in the coming weeks. Fans will be able to discover new music from the WMG catalog with Last.fms intelligent radio and music recommendations and share their radio channels with other subscribers.

In making the announcement, Alex Zubillaga, Executive Vice President, Digital Strategy and Business Development, WMG said, This agreement reflects WMGs dedication to fostering the growth of community-driven music discovery services. We want to enable fans to experience exciting ways to uncover new Warner Music artists, and to enjoy innovative approaches to customizing their digital music experience.

Martin Stiksel, cofounder and chief content officer of Last.fm said, We are very excited to have reached this agreement with WMG. This constitutes a major development for our social music network. Our innovative approach to music discovery and online radio now gives our users access to some of the greatest music ever recorded.

About Last.fm

Founded in 2002 in London, Last.fm is the online, social music revolution that connects people with music and artists with listeners. By joining the Last.fm community, music fans can choose to share their music preferences by linking their media player (e.g. iTunes) to the Last.fm database. This database is populated continually with over 500 million monthly track submissions from Last.fm music fans. As a result, Last.fm can intelligently recommend songs, artists, local concerts and even other members based on their musical tastes. Learn more about Last.fm at www.last.fm.

About Warner Music Group

Warner Music Group became the only stand-alone music company to be publicly traded in the United States in May 2005. With its broad roster of new stars and legendary artists, Warner Music Group is home to a collection of the best-known record labels in the music industry including Asylum, Atlantic, Bad Boy, Cordless, East West, Elektra, Lava, Maverick, Nonesuch, Perfect Game, Reprise, Rhino, Roadrunner, Rykodisc, Sire, Warner Bros. and Word. Warner Music International, a leading company in national and international repertoire, operates through numerous international affiliates and licensees in more than 50 countries. Warner Music Group also includes Warner/Chappell Music, one of the world's leading music publishers.

Source: Warner Music Group

It seems to me that for-profit corporations are simple creatures. They seek one thing: profit (some are better at it than others). They respond to pleasure (profit), desire (for profit), pain (loss of profit), and fear (of loss of profit). If you want them to change their behavior you must employ these carrots and sticks.

Penalize record companies for their membership in the RIAA. Purchase no music from members of the RIAA. This can be tricky as many record labels that seem to be Independents are actually subsidiaries of RIAA members. Also, you cannot reliably identify whether an album or single is published by an RIAA member just by the artist. Many acts begin their careers on independent labels and then move to majors that are RIAA. There are resources that will help you to identify whether a given album or single is RIAA-member published or not:

www.riaaradar.com
wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_RIAA_member_labels

Don't buy records, CDs, tapes, or downloads published by these labels. You don't have to avoid *listening* to works published by RIAA members. Just refuse to *purchase* them.

Reward the labels that are not members of the RIAA. Purchase music from labels that are not RIAA affiliated. It shouldn't be hard. Unless you live completely in a mainstream media wasteland, some of the musicians that you like are on independent labels.

If you enjoy purchasing music on-line, consider doing so through eMusic.com. Although they are the #2 on-line music retailer after the iTunes music store, almost all their tracks are from non-RIAA members. As a bonus each song sold by eMusic comes in a DRM-free MP3 format!

If you do these things don't count on industry executives being astute enough to figure out from the sales numbers alone why their fortunes are declining. Consider contacting the Big 4 major labels and tell them exactly why you are avoiding their products and the products of their subsidiaries.

• EMI
• Sony BMG Music Entertainment
• Universal Music Group
• Warner Music Group

Then, sit back and enjoy music and the schadenfreude.

An apology from Warner Chapell (dear God how many components of the Time Warner omni-media complex exist?)

Minor nit: Time Warner spun off Warner Music Group, consisting largely of Warner Bros. Records and Warner Chappell Music, and sold it to Edgar Bronfman Jr. in early 2004. It is now the largest publicly-traded American company that specializes in the business of music.