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RIAA Trying to Copy-Protect Radio
doctorfaustus writes "The EFF is reporting that "the RIAA has been pushing the FCC to impose a copy-protection mandate on the makers of next-generation digital radio receiver/recorders (think TiVo-for-radio)." According to Mike Godwin, "Never mind that digital audio broadcasting is not significantly greater in quality than regular, analog radio. Never mind that its music quality is vastly less than than that of audio CDs. In spite of these inconvenient facts, the RIAA is hoping that the transition to "digital audio broadcasting" will provide enough confusion and panic that they can persuade Congress or the FCC to impose some kind of copy-protection scheme or regulation on digital radio broadcast." "
I ran tens of thousands of dollars of radio ads this year for my retail stores (focused on 10-22 year olds). Few people heard them.
Why? Radio is dead or dying for most younger people. All my employees under 21 podcast or listen to playlists. The RIAA doesn't really have any idea what they're chasing. Putting a Band-Aid on a corpse is useless.
I'm not fan of music piracy (I used to run a warez pirate BBS 15 years back) anymore. Why? There is nothing worth pirating. The radio doesn't appeal to the market that likes that music. People used to go to concerts, too, but my last concert was $95/ticket for an fairly-unknown electronica band -- the crowd was thin.
Let them DRM everything valuable to them. I'm fine with it! I have no desire to bootleg what I can afford to buy if it pleases me enough. I'll continue to go to $8 Indie bar shows, buy the bands' $10 CDs and $10 T-shirts, and ignore my car radio. My house hasn't had a radio for 10 years.
As it gets harder for consumers to consume, they switch to something easier. I feel bad for record shops and radio ad sales people. The end is coming, but they don't see it.
As for quality, who cares? Radio-friendly music is already fidelity-free from excessive compression, gating, and over mastering. Even my MP3'd music is only 96k, my noise floor in the car and outside that I don't mind the loss of resolution.
Don't hate the RIAA, they're already not a concern. It's like hating VHS Macrovision.
I don't care about this in the slightest.
I gave up listening to radio regularly years ago when my favorite station in Minneapolis turned into a Dianna Ross style station for 3 whole days. And now in South Dakota, the stations aren't much better, 90% country! *shudder*
These days if I remember I might listen to some Prairie Home Companion, Love Line, or Bob & Tom in the Morning.
Other than that... I no longer care what goes on on the radio as I've got my iPod wired into my deck and am quite happy with commercial free, hi-fidelity commutes!
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
Legislate a way for us to survive.
...treat your customers as criminals and expect 'em to like it. And, as other posters noted, most of the manufactured, fake, top-40 pop shit on modern corporate radio isn't worth listening to (let alone pirating) in the first place.
So, RIAA, I have four words to say: fuck off and die.
Potential Ask Slashdot: how to get started with independent/non-RIAA artists, music, and online services -- particularly if your tastes run towards older music?
The RIAA is also pushing for a mandatory surcharge whenever vocal cords are created, since they can be used to violate RIAA's existing copyrights.
Even if it doesn't make sense. That way, when they whittle you down to something less, they feel like they've accomplished something. Meanwhile, you get what you want.
We all know the tactic. It's like salary negotiations during an interview.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
I don't own an XM radio. I can't see buying one and then paying for a monthly subscription to listen to crappy music. If the RIAA succeeds it'll reduce the value proposition even further.
1) Kill off all the distribution channels for your product.
2) ????
3) Profit!!
[Insert pithy quote here]
Ok, I have no motivation whatsoever right now to adopt any new form of radio, and this further demotivates me.
These people keep thinking they can control everything that we think, do, or say. When the founders of the USA wrote the bill of rights and drafted our first laws, they had no intention whatsoever that they would be abused this way.
Software patents? Now I cannot program an application that is an interface for presenting and displaying playback information on a portable device because microsoft owns the patent? Come on. Lame.
Music? I'm sorry, but I have no realistic alternative to buying the CD if I want to listen to music. Radio sucks (ok, the commercials more than anything else), and I have no good reason to pay 99 cents for a song on iTunes. I, for one, like the pretty box.
I have no doubt that HDTV might have been pushed forth a lot sooner if anyone settled on a standard. Instead, they've been debating the different ways to present the media, and most recently the biggest qualm is with the feared broadcast flag. If it weren't for things like broadcast flag, I'm sure I could have been watching Sonic SatAM in HD 12 years ago.
Need another point? BluRay or HD-DVD? Nope. The biggest debate I've seen is piracy control. Encryption schemes, manufacturing processes, etc. The studios are leaning away from HD-DVD because they basically utilize the same technology as existing DVDs, but BluRay didn't have the must have CSS (Consumer Screwed Severely) version 2.0.
Bloody hell. Instead of promoting innovation, this system promotes stagnation. I for one, am sick and tired of it. And anyone who questions that... I'd like to point out that, while aural recording techniques have dramatically improved over the past 20 years, we're still using the same basic late 70s/early 80s tech to record most of the world's CDs. I know there's nothing wrong with the proven tech, but why do CDs still run $16 a pop?
Deja Vu
n. 1. The sensation that you've read this very article before.
My wife is a big country fan. She has gotten me hooked on one of our local radio stations. It is a small town station that is sometimes hard to pick up but it is well worth it.
They actually like music at that station!
Not only that but they are part of the community. They have a show called DialnDeal every morning where people call in to sell and buy stuff and they broadcast the local high school games football games.
Even the ads are not annoying. They are for local stores and they also seem like part of the community. Clear Channel is what is killing radio. The small town stations that are still independent can still be gems.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
To those who say "No one listened to my ad" as proof that no one listens to the radio, I have to ask when was the last time you actually listened to an ad? Radio tends to be background noise; I certainly don't make an effort to listen to an ad. Shoot, in the car I'll often quickly switch the station for the duration of the ads in my primary station (I find radio in the car much easier than swapping out CDs, XM receivers, or hooking up an iPod - besides, sometimes I enjoy listening to NPR).
Radio may have diminished since its heyday, but it's certainly far from dead.
When will you finally conclude that consumption of mass media is neither required, nor even beneficial for your lives?
Let them cement themselves into their irrelevance.
taken! (by Davidleeroth) Thanks Bingo Foo!
I mean, honestly, they don't seem interested in distributing music, just denying people access to it.
They have taken ANY modern form of music distribution and ignored any possiblity of adapting to a new industry of music NOT distributed in a physical state like tapes or disks.
What I don't understand is why musicians don't just dump the RIAA period. There is no legal reason for the RIAA to exist and I really doubt they are a comittee acting in the best interests of the muscians, just suits looking out for their own bottom line.
We have reached a point in time when ANYONE can set up a decent digital recording studio, I think musicians should simply start going independent, record and distribute their own stuff and bypass the whole corporate music world.
You don't need to distribute music on CD any more, and even if you do, CD mass production is cheap and affordable, a few thousand to master a glass disk and produce copies. But you can still offer better quality digital files online (straight from the recording studio, unmolested by "CD Quality") and sell them like any other eCommerce product. Sure, your going to get those that simply rip you off and distribute the file for free, but if your a band that makes good music, you will develop a following of fans that will want to pay you to ensure you continue to make good music. How many independent artists out their are far better then the cookie cutter bands and fluff singers that the corporate world dumps on us. Who in their right mind would (or should) pay for another Britney spears disaster? Also, with a large fan base you will get them coming out to concerts and performances which cannot be pirated, you have to pay to watch them live.
I think that the "artists" that support the RIAA are just in it for the money, happy to whore themselves to the music industry to make a quick buck. Any self respecting musician should start looking into indepenent labels and not care about music piracy. They would be happy to make enough money to earn a decent living ( more decent then I can earn ) and not worry about potentially losing millions through piracy, any artist that does is a corporate kiss ass sell out!
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
Name a song from those played on the radio that is "much the same" as those punk fans are calling awesome, and don't blame me if someone tells you that you have a tin ear.
Fuck Them.
First of all: how dare you suggest that the grand kids of the current teen idols should have to work?
Second of all: greed is a significant part of our culture.
Like him or not, copyright of digital broadcasts could give originators of content the legal protection they need to limit others from engaging in constitutionally protected political satire.
Fixed it for you.
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
What! I won't be able to record those 30 minute commercial special anymore? Dang, that sucks, I loved those!
Whereas the music on the radio is utterly horrible and repetitive enough.
Whereas any kind of recording of radio broadcasted media utterly blows in relation to CD quality.
Whereas you(Congress) know shit about technology.
Proposal:
Please stop listening to the people making money and start listening to the people paying money, for once.