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RIAA Protests Digital Radio
prostoalex writes "Afraid that digital radio listeners might soon be able to cherry-pick certain songs and share them with others on the Internet, RIAA urged FCC to consider broadcast regulations that limit such copying. The National Association of Broadcasters is not too happy with RIAA's request, as more than three hundred broadcasters either have digital CD-quality radio, or are in the process of setting them up. Meanwhile, as MSNBC notes, products like The Bug from Pure Digital are already capable of recording digital radio."
The RIAA will try to outlaw singing. After all, they can't sell as many records if people can just reproduce the music with their voice!!! Bahahaha... ::tear::
Or can digital radios already do this?
Slashdot: Where people pretend to be twice as smart as they really are by behaving like children.
Does anyone still remember Massinova? They offered near CD quality streams, a great request system, etc etc...
And to thank them for their efforts, the RIAA sued and screwed em, and now that great Trance stream is no more.
Long live Massinova.
The RIAA is now seeking to eliminate ALL music in an attempt to make sure people don't steal it. Buy CDs while you can, they'll soon be outlawed! LPs and audio cassetes will also soon be collected and destroyed. The RIAA will begin raiding people's homes and taking away all audio equipment to be incinerated in giant ovens, never to be heard of again. During the burn-fest, Metallica will be paying a huge concert at $500 a head... blah blah blah, maybe I dragged this joke out for too long, but you'll have to excuse me...I just work up and this isn't the way I wanted to start my day.
I'm against picketing but I don't know how to show it.
Ever hear of taping a song off the radio. A lot of people do it.
Git off ma fair use before aye shoot ya.
Well, this was only a matter of time. Most people I know listen to Internet Radio more then their own libraries anymore especially on iTunes. Does this mean that Sirius is going to get regulated too because of broadcasting music at such a high quality? What about the people in the 80s/90s who listened to regular radio and recorded songs to tape?
Second, I was always a subtle Howard Stern fan, but now with what is going on with clear channel, his broadcasts are more entertaining then just the stupid fart jokes. He really is going through a struggle, and the FCC/RIAA are seeing great times to strike out with the election.
Let's stop going back in the time machine...
Thanks,
Aj
GroupShares.com - Free Stock Logs/Commentary
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artlu.net
Breaking news: the RIAA has appealled to the FCC to help regulate individuals from singing out loud.
An RIAA spokesman, I. M. Prick, has indicated "That people pose a very serious threat to our industry because they are able to reproduce music by vocalization. It appears that if other people hear individuals hear others singing songs illegaly, then they might remember the lyrics, tune and beat and thereby infringe on our copyrights."
No trees were harmed in the composition of this; however, numerous electrons were inconvenienced.
Unfortunately, the main RIAA customer base is dumb kids who buy manufactured crap like Westlife etc. They will continue to buy that shit and continue to fund these retards.
Oh come on! There's an (overused) trick to prevent people from creating their music libraries from taping off the radio today: it's when the radio DJ "talks" into the first 10 seconds or so of the song, or fades one song into the other.
That makes every piece annoying enough that I doubt many people are going to want to record anything other than maybe entire programs.
Murray Todd Williams
Hello,
They don't want it to end, that is the plain answer. The RIAA lives of the customers who buy "legal" music (they never remember the Creative Commons license, isn't that curious?). They are not interested in the earnings of the artists, of course; they only stand for their own earnings. Take into account that a musician earns more money playing in concerts, than selling discs.
To sum up: money rules.
Muaaaaaaaaks
--
You'd stumble in my footsteps (Depeche Mode, "Walking in my shoes")
I mean, pretty soon, the RIAA will have so many high tech snooping devices that we won't be able to even sing "DO RE MI F-- NO CARRIER
Last I heard, "HD Radio" was compressed using MPEG-4 AAC. I forget the bitrate, but it's likely around 128 Kbps. This is real good, but not CD-quality. Eric Weaver Chief Engineer, KFJC, 1993-1997
I for one am completely and totally tired of their antics. We geeks have power and can be a serious force. I am issuing a challenge at this moment. We need to develop an alternative path for customers and artists to take to bypass them.
I am confident that if we can all band together, we can overcome. I am talking about a distribution system that is based on open standards that allows payment to go directly to artist with minimal (if any) overhead.
Here is what I propose:
-A non-profit organization comprised of volunteers
-Create a website to serve as a repository of songs to be distributed via bittorrent
-Payment taken in the form of Paypal donations
-Payment is artist AND song specific based completely on an honor system
-To encourage reasonable sized payments, offer bonuses for tiered donations
-For example, after $100 is donated to band X, the customer becomes eligble for free concert tickets or something
-Payment is dispursed to artists in entirety
-Artists are encouraged to donate back a portion of their payments to cover costs of bandwidth, etc.
-No DRM to be used and only open formats for music.
-Songs should be available in varying qualities.
Maybe this exact model has already been proposed, I don't know. Comments and suggestions welcome. I have issued the challenge, will anyone answer?
But if I lose my Digitally Imported, I will commit arson. And homicide. And pillaging. And public urination. Not necessarily in that order.
I know nothing
Earlier today I was listening to a CD with the window open. I have a bad feeling I've influenced the buying decisions of my next-door neighbor now.
It would be a great idea, similar to the DeCSS Gallery, to document every possible way you can copy/save/record any auido/video stream including schematics and code for DIY hardware boxes (like phreaking boxes) and software in many forms (t-shirts, songs, art, or just plain code etc..). Cover every hardware platform, every media format and every method, from micro-phone-to-speaker to full digital stream copies. Make sure the site shows how much of a joke this is but at the same time gives a useful resource and of course, make many many mirrors of it. If its already been done then great, whats the url? but if it hasnt it would be a great project (funded by t-shirt sales). All these great copying methods from pressing shift to blacking out the edges of CDs to decryption need to be in one place. Device-by-device guides showing you pin-outs and wiring instructions, code for PICs etc and what country sells the tools you need. The site should conform to some basic common sense rules i.e displaying "copyright violation is a criminal offence" etc and the thinking being that what you do with your own property in your own home is your business.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Sure it's from Russia, but for ~$1.00 a CD for 256 VBR MP3's... Who cares... If I don't like a song, I've thrown away $.07..
Do your part to talk with your acquaintances and encourage them not to support the RIAA.
Whining on Slashdot won't get much accomplished. Convincing people that they won't be able to enjoy music how they like it in the near future will make a difference.
Just last night I carefully explained to a friend who enjoys listening to Cold exactly why she should take a look at which record labels publish those CDs. It's pretty simple--sure, you may be able to buy the CD now, but the next one might be copy protected. If you buy stuff that is put out by those who aren't part of this major media conglomerate, then you won't be encouraging such business tactics.
I don't know how much of my message was actually heard and how much was just glossed over, but by the time I finished talking she seemed to be at least a little more aware that there should be more to CD purchasing than just finding what you like.
For me, it is COMPLETELY about the record label. I use the RIAA Radar like nobody's business, and I try my absolute hardest only to buy CDs that come up clean when checked there. There are several highly-desirable purchases I refuse to make because I would be supporting the RIAA. It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make because I understand the implications of giving in.
Fortunately, my music tastes lean towards electronic ("techno"), which is quite predisposed towards free sharing and downloading. Right now I can give you URLs to four artists' music sites that allow you to download 128kbps or better mp3s of those artists songs without any DRM. There are plenty of indie labels and pro-P2P/sharing musicians out there in other genres, but it appears to me that my favorite type of music has the largest percentage.
CD quality? I'd be happy if my radio produced FM quality. The typical American broadcaster takes a nice, clean audio signal and then proceeds to mutilate it beyond recognition with a "modulation optimizer" before feeding it to the transmitter. These devices ensure that the transmitter is run at 100% modulation, or greater, all the time, in every audio band. The result is badly distorted audio without the slightest trace of dynamic range. If they will not broadcast a clean FM signal, why should we expect them to broadcast a clean digital signal?
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
Remember Digital Audio Tape? Wanna go buy one?
Look at what the DMCA is doing to reverse engineering.
Look at what's being discussed to close the 'analog hole'.
Our nation is sacrificing it's technological competitiveness in the name of the entertainment industries. We have already sacrificed a LOT, though it's still reversible.
One of my Senators is Patrick Leahy, and maybe it's time for me to become a single-issue voter. His response to my last letter on this was not satisfactory, I need to try again - well before November.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
The comment about fears of "cherry-picking" songs probably tells more about the industry's real fears than they intended. Their biggest fear, I think, isn't simply about piracy (which can always be fought as a crime) but that listeners will become accustomed to listen to what they want, when they want. The existing structure of the music industry depends on using the radio and favorable product placement to boost certain artists; that's why those artists are willing to sign such unfavorable contracts. If the people in charge of the music industry lose control of popular taste, they're finished no matter what else happens.
"U.S. regulators at the Federal Communications Commission should ensure that the broadcast format limits such copying so radio stations don't turn the airwaves into a giant file-sharing network, RIAA officials said."
So the RIAA doesn't want radio to become a giant sharing network?
You're the ones broadcasting your signal into our airspace. You don't want to share? Turn off the transmitter.
While the NAB doesn't exactly have the best interests of you and me in mind, the RIAA's desire to regulate every single intersection of music and commerce might cause the NAB to recognize that if they espouse the cause of less restrictive copyright, they could gain tremendous political and economic benefit.
Then again, the NAB might simply form some kind of cooperative scheme with the RIAA. But I don't think that's a foregone conclusion. Look at the good will IBM has generated by fighting SCO. Sure, IBM was forced into it by a suicidal Darl McBride, but others are likely watching how much goodwill IBM is garnering by their actions in the SCO/Linux struggle.
I know, profits are more powerful than goodwill, but goodwill can lead to profits. Maybe the NAB will grok this and take the fight to the RIAA.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Just remember, replacing every existing digital radio and upgrading every digital station just to install DRM is not a problem, other things that the RIAA might also consider an option in the near future: Rounding up all non-DRM hardware by force (first digital then analog), Breaking down your door and beating you on the ground for using Kazaa, Raping your wife/sister/daughter because you 'raped an artist of their work', Getting the death sentence imposed for copyright violation (by giving the government some 'gifts'), and 'buying' the rights to major historical composers such as Mozart, Beethoven and Vivaldi, sampling their work or reusing melodies to create really crap gangsta rap albums and charging orchestras royalties for playing any of the original music.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
I've had XM for over a year and listen daily in the car. The reason I got XM was because I absolutely hate the junk that is heard in Clearchanel dominated market I live in.
Not once have I thought of recording anything from XM. Since most XM radios have line outputs for amplifiers, it would be easy to plug in a laptop and record to wav or even mp3 with no problem. This article put the idea in my head, courtesy of the RIAA. Good job guys.
I've bought quite a few CD's from "new" artists that I actually had a chance to hear on XM. XM definately helps the labels sell more CD's since Clearchanel doesn't play what the public wants to hear anymore.
The few decent artists that are played to death on broadcast radio don't seem worth the $15 to buy. Hell, I could hear the same song every time I turn on the radio anyway. But the ones that I hear on XM are new and aren't jammed down my throat. I WANT to buy the CD's. Nobody feels good ripping off the underdog artists, but we all write off the radio artists as the enemy, thus they are exploitable.
The RIAA seems to want control over which artists are popular more than they want money from listeners. In any other business, the stockholders would have voted out anyone who repeatedly made such bad decisions. It just makes no sense.
If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. - James Madison
We're geeks, right? We're the sorcerers of the modern-day world. Without us, nothing happens and no-one works.
The RIAA can try this all they like, but if they succeed in getting the restrictions they want, we'll break them, we'll show others how to break them and we'll pirate the content out over the web just to make sure they learn that if they fuck with us they'll get hurt.
There's a lesson pending for the RIAA, and its this. Our rights as consumers are not up for renegotiation, and we don't want our rights to be protected (enforced) by expensive and unreliable DRM. RIAA, you can accept this, or you can pay up for the technology only to see us painlessely circumvent it. We will not be governed by you. That's not the way it works
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
The radio stations should stop playing RIAA songs altogether and see how many they sell then.
People's desire to believe they are right is much stronger than their desire to be right.
When asked for any additional comments, he would only say "Let them play wax - we'll show the customer who is king."
Sigs are bad for your health.
The RIAA lives of the customers who buy "legal" music (they never remember the Creative Commons license, isn't that curious?).
Excellent comment. In fact, the part about the "legal" music is almost taken verbatim from their about us page.
They are not interested in the earnings of the artists, of course; they only stand for their own earnings. Take into account that a musician earns more money playing in concerts, than selling discs.
This is what I've been thinking about lately. Who else is remotely similar to the RIAA or the MPAA? Technically, they are classified as an industry trade group. And that industry trade groups are put together by a group of corporations that are in a common industry for the purpose of government legislation and public relations. Other industry trade groups are the American Plastics Council and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.
These other two organizations I know of though their TV comercials where they have slogans like "Beef, Its whats for dinner", or the plastics ads where they show how our lives have been improved with the advent of plasic materials.
Now, lets think of my interaction with the RIAA and the MPAA. Its been on the news, and how they are pissed off that people are downloading files, then suing these people, etc.
The RIAA and MPAA do not have a product. They are not a corporation. They cannot ever loose money. They are given money from membership fees from thier members. These fees are solely based on the market share and size of the corporation. They are like a voluntary tax!
Does this remind you of another organization that is purely based upon lawsuits and pres releases? You can find them by searching google for litigious bastards.
Dont worry about these guys. They will not be around too much more. SCO is almost out of amunition to prove thier existance, and being that the RIAA and MPAA have no more amunition than SCO, they too will just disipear.
I truly wanted to write something insightful about this story. I wanted to make a logical balanced statement about why the RIAA is simply wrong and will eventually die due to their own greed. I wanted to write something that would illuminate and entertain and was suitable for all age groups to read.
Unfortunately I couldn't do that. Every time I now think about the RIAA and whatever approach they are currently trying to keep their grip on the fat cash they make screwing over the artist, customer, and anyone else who gets in the way I can only ever think of two words.
"Fuck Them"
So that's my post. Don't be too hard on me mods because I tried. Maybe I've seen one too many RIAA stories or something but those four letters just draw one response from me at this point and that was it.
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
ummm, no, unless you are a major promotion company Bill Graham Presents, Clear Channel, etc. As a promoter you are luck to make a living wage.
As an example:
My girlfriend used to promote bands here in SF, one show she did sold approximately 1200 tickets, at $25 a ticket, she had $30,000 coming in. sounds good.
oops
band cost: 12,000
rider costs: 2,500 venue rental: 4,000
promotion: 2,000
equipment rental for night of show: 5,000
staff costs: 1,500
for a rough total of: 27,000
she worked her ass of for one month, and worked somewhat hard for another month. So let's call it $3,000 for working her ass off for one and a half months. $12.50 an hour. whoopee.
The band, showed up, had a hotel room waiting, had all but their specialty lighting waiting, had half their instruments waiting. did a 45 minute sound check, played for an hour and 15 minutes, and made 12,000, minus 10% for management, and let's say another 20% for incidentals, they made 8,400 for one nights work. 3 people in the band, 2800 each, they played a city a night for something like 3 months, with a conservative 2 days off a week, each band member made about $150,000 in three months.
this is a relatively niche oriented band, with a consistent following, but they are making decent money at it.
promoters don't really start to make money until they own venues, and can negotiate multiple shows, etc.
I could go on and on, but as in anything music business related, the bigger you are the more you make. not much to do with talent, most the folks I know that are in the live music business are in it because they really like a certain style of music, or possibly they just love music, but you sure aren't in it for the money.
If you are one in a million, then there are six thousand people who are just like you.