A Reprieve for Internet Radio

westlake writes "In the wake of Internet Radio's Day of Silence, SoundExchange has proposed a temporary $2500 cap on advance payments 'per channel/per station.' The Digital Music Association responded immediately in its own press release that it would agree to this, but only if the term for the new arrangement were extended to 2010 — or, preferably, forever. On another front, SoundExchange seems aware in its PR that it will have to concede something more to the non-profit webcaster, if it is to avoid Congressional action."

Comments

"didn't realise"

[clickclickdrone]

That phrase that they "didn't realise" these stations have thousands of channels just points to how ill researched these organisations are. They're putting in knee-jerk regulatory and charging regimes that just don't fit the real world. It's probably not even crossed their mind that half of them are trying to charge for listeners in countries that don't even fall under their jurisdiction.
We're going through a painful growing stage that's going to be full of 'WTF?' moments but I'd be surprised if in ten years time, the music industry landscape will be drastically different with self-publishing bands, CDs a rarity (or their replacement format) and the licencing juggernaut that we have right now being relegated to history.
The only reason I can see for the industry as it stands to exist is R&D but they do so little of that now as to be moot. If a band doesn't hit the big time on their first single/album, they're dropped, no more the nurturing of a band over several albums while they find their stride.
The HiFi brigade will naturally be less than enthused about MP3 as a primary format but that will no doubt be replaced with some sort of lossless DRM free format by then.

Re:"didn't realise"

[clickclickdrone]

I can't believe they would write regulations about something they don't even understand! In the UK that's all the Labour government do - a new law every ten minutes on average too. If this is your first exposure to fools making foolish laws, be happy!

Re:"didn't realise"

[ShedPlant]

You're far too quick to predict the demise of one of the biggest, richest and toughest corporate organisations in America. It's very naive.

Re:"didn't realise"

[morgan_greywolf]

We're going through a painful growing stage that's going to be full of 'WTF?' moments but I'd be surprised if in ten years time, the music industry landscape will be drastically different with self-publishing bands, CDs a rarity (or their replacement format) and the licencing juggernaut that we have right now being relegated to history.

Not just self-publishing, but self-publishing and somewhat self-promoting. I mean somewhat because a new market will be created for promoters, whom will be hired directly by bands, much like a publicist today. Except that the promoter will do all the promoting jobs, not just talking to the media -- they'll hire advertisers, they'll buy Google ads, they'll hire the necessary people to setup concerts and gigs. IOW, they'll do a lot of the valuable work the record companies do today.

Call me naive, call me a dreamer -- but the more I look it at it from the perspective of a musical artist, it just seems to be going in that direction.

Re:"didn't realise"

[Red Flayer]

Sorry to comment on the moderation of the parent post, but I'd say that's hardly flamebait.

ShedPlant makes a valid point, though it's not to the liking of most people here.

The record industry is extremely wealthy and has the ear of the extremely powerful. Though it may seem obvious to us that their business model is outdated and is destined to fail, they have the political clout to make sure US legislators prop up their model for a long, long time. They also, via control (or association with those in control) of television media, continue to have the strongest marketing presence.

It's all fine and dandy to believe that the music industry of the future is just over the horizon, but I don't think it's in the immediate future -- there is simply too much political clout and capital invested in making sure that then status quo is maintained. I think back ten years, and people were saying that by now, we'd already have witnessed the restructuring of the music industry due to technological changes. Ten years from now, I think we'll look back at today, and be saying the same thing.

This isn't just Monday morning pessimism, the simple truth is that it will be another generation (or two!) before the people who really understand the future of media distribution are in the political power positions necessary to overcome the money being funneled into politics by the media companies. And that's if we're lucky.

Let internet radio die

[0xdeadbeef]

We should be helping the music cartels kill themselves, not trying to convince them of the stupidity of their actions. And I would rather my beloved internet radio stations go out as martyrs than forever hear them begging me for donations that will just end up going to the RIAA mobsters.

The panel is incompetent

[Overzeetop]

Simply stated, the (three, five?) judge panel setting the ruling should be sacked. It is clear that they have absolutely no business setting royalty payments, as they are entirely ignroant of the underlying industry which they are ruling on. The expert for the stations stated, in effect, this exact outcome and they either didn't understand the technology enough to realize the implications, or were so biased towards one party that they chose to ignore the information. Either way, they should be replaced with members which understand the industry and the conditions present.

Of course, that won't happen. Incompetence and ignorance are not grounds for removing a judge, and from the prespective of the current administration they played the game very nicely.

Re:Testing the waters?

[Gorshkov]

Effectively killing internet radio in the US seems like it would be pretty far beyond that point, as it would be hard for congress to look the other way on that.

But they won't kill internet radio in the US. They'll kill internet radio BASED in the US.

Anybody want to rent some of my Canadian bandwidth for streaming to US customers?

Re:Still a chunk of change

[beckerist]

I miss the days when radio was orchestrated by the DJ. Instead of there being "playlists" and the DJ just there for random contests and advertisements, the DJ USED to be (well...sometimes was...) a knowledgeable source of the music he was playing, because not only would he PLAY what he LIKED, he generally OWNED it all anyway.

Now it's all automated and corporately driven, unless you find a good college station: (like www.wicb.org -- listen online and rated very well nationally)

8 years ago when I called up my local rock station and asked for Queens of the Stone Age, the DJ knew who I was talking about (at that point a year old band with a brand new album.) Now, try to call your local rock radio station and see if they have any Copeland, or Tea Party (now just Jeff Martin, but worth a look!!!) or V.A.S.T....bands that have been putting out multiple albums for YEARS but since they aren't on many major playlists, you'll NEVER hear them from ClearChannel or KROCK...