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RIAA and Net Radio Broadcasters Reach Agreement
An anonymous reader writes "The RIAA and internet web broadcasters have reached a royalty agreement. Instead of facing massive increases per song played, they will be generally charged 10.5% of their yearly revenue."
...it's also a sign that the RIAA knows it is outdated and is only grasping at the few straws remaining.
If you're thinking of starting a business venture, there are two words for you: supply and demand.
No amount of laws or regulations can overcome supply and demand in the long run. The RIAA relied on preferential laws and regulations to maintain their control over distribution. Recorded music has a near-infinite supply in terms of distribution online. Hence the price of it should fall to nearly zero (yes, some people who see value in compensating the artist will never believe the price should be zero).
The RIAA is screwed, no matter how you look at it. Most monopolistic corporation unions who rely on legislation and not on supply and demand are just as screwed.
There will always be a segment of the population who wants to produce music simply for the fun of it. But they still need to eat.
More than this; the potential to earn enough cash quickly (and easily?) enough to allow you and your family to live comfortably for the rest of your life is a major driving factor for many of the people in the business today. The less reward there is available, the less motivation. Rightly or wrongly, with less reward you have less talent - or at least, less depth of talent.
Everything you say is true. The problem is that there is no evidence whatsoever that the RIAA contributes anything toward the ability of musicians to make a living off their music. Given the numerous horror stories about just how much industry parasites suck out of the music buyer's dollar on its journey from the buyer's wallet to the musician's bank account, it's quite reasonable to believe that it is more difficult to make a living as a professional musician with the RIAA around than it would be in the absence of such an organization.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
It's an expensive habit, most of us are just trying to break even.
Sorry for posting as AC but I just would like to point out that this agreement is only for On-Demand services and not pre-programmed web radio services (which most web radio stations are).
So for most stations this does not change anything and the insane royalty rates that threatens the whole web radio industry is still very much in place.
I had to do a double take when I read 10.5% of yearly revenue. 10.5% of profits sounds excessive, but 10.5% off the top is outrageous.
Part of the hardcore faithful who believed in Apple long before it was cool again to do so
Seriously. RIAA is acting like a mafia. Asking for a flat cut as protection money. Civilized extortion.
Eclipse PDE and Me
It's an expensive habit,...
Yeah, I think that statement should be in the running for some sort of award for "Most massive understatement in a /. post".
most of us are just trying to break even.
Anything that's music-related...instruments, amps, etc...is extremely pricey. A decent brand-name USA-made professional-quality electric guitar will set you back $2,000-$3,000, and the same with an amp (thinking of an example of a new Gibson Les Paul and a 50 watt Marshall half-stack). That's the best part of $10,000 for just *ONE* guitar players' personal rig in an average good-quality bar/club cover band!!
That's not counting effects pedals and/or rackmount effects/processors, cabling, strings, picks, stands, microphones ($100-$150 each), PA gear, and the maintenance costs of keeping all the equipment (which can be quirky) and the instruments in shape. Heck, just a new set of tubes for a guitar amp can easily run $200-$300! That's just for starters. Then there's transportation and storage costs for all the equipment, and personal transportation and lodging plus food costs, and even laundry for those on the road, on top of that for all the band members.
Most average bar/club bands don't come anywhere near to paying even ongoing expenses, never mind also recovering their investment in the equipment and instruments when you factor in all the costs. Most bars only pay a band $350-$500, many even less. Many times a band will get stiffed altogether by shady bar owners. These guys do what they do because they love playing and entertaining. Please keep this in mind the next time you go to a bar or club and see a tip jar at the edge of the stage.
Cheers!
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
The thing is, hobbies are expensive. The fact that you have an opportunity to make some money on it is just an extra bonus. Think the guy who is into sailing moans about the $10-$200K he has in gear, and how "the man" (e.g. the Coast Guard) makes all these laws conspiring against him earning some income off his investment? Or how about the airplane pilot, with $200,000 sunk into his private plane that cannot take private passengers for hire?
What makes musicians so special and whiney? It is a hobby, albeit an expensive one, that if you are really really good at, you can get paid to do. Same with pilots. Same with boat captains. No one owes anyone an income from their hobby.
This post brought to you by your friendly neighborhood MBA.
How much of that will go to artists? apparently none since no one is keeping track of the artists whose music is played.
Nope, this is more payola. Fat Tony wants 10.5% of the take for your continued ability to play music without issue.
Notice, it says 10.5% of the yearly revenue. Not yearly profit.
Yep, this is bad for artists and bad for consumers and bad for everyone except the RIAAfia
They're using their grammar skills there.
In your fluffy, shiny little world how does Pandora pay for its bandwidth?
Coding with assembly is like playing with Legos. Coding an application in assembly is like building a car with Legos.
You could earn $500 a week working clubs (if you're very lucky). Of that money, you pay the whole band, eat, fix equipment, and so on.
The RIAA shows up, and offers to show your material to everyone in the country with their advertising, which means instead of a bar's worth of people, you have a country full... but they get 1/2 your money and get to decide what you write music about (prepare for angsty teen drama).
Still a net gain financially... even if it means your giving up creativity and freedom for it. Just depends if the artist finds writing and preferming their own music more important then money.
Possible fixes to the system? Independant website that works kind of like Pandora... mods mark a song with certain genres, people listen, vote for songs with a simple 'thumbs up or down' option, pay the artist based on how often his song is listened to (obviously more $$ if the song is good), people who don't suck get paid, people who do suck don't.
And yes, exploitable... bugs would need ironed out... but it's 9am, lucky I can type this early...
Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master.