This whole thing is so upsetting to me. I'm a huge fan of Pandora, for one, and even though Internet radio stations haven't played a lot of artists I really love they've still played a lot of great music and don't deserve this burden.
There's been a lot of talk about how, if this stands, it'll be good for the indie artist, but there are so many indie artists and so few ever get heard. Will this make webcasters more aware of services like the Podcast Music Network and other services that offer podsafe music? Maybe, I don't know. Since audio standards for podcasts tend to be much lower than standards for internet radio streaming, there needs to be a place on the web where non-RIAA artists can upload as many high-quality rips of their music as they want.
I'll give everyone a good example. There's a woman named Happy Rhodes (it's her real name) who has been making great music for over 20 years. She has 10 albums released on indie labels and is unknown specifically because she's never been on a major label. She has 15 songs up at the Podcast Music Network and would have more except that 15 is their limit. She wouldn't appeal to everyone, but for those who like artists such as Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, maybe Tori Amos and Sarah McLachlan, she might be right up their alley. Her music is as high-quality, though done on a tiny budget with nothing left over for promotion. She's been completely unsigned for years and has been struggling to get an 11th album finished and realeased. With NO backing whatsoever, her career survives by word-of-mouth (and, yeah, a day job). Since she has a phenomenal voice, and is as talented as people you've actually heard of and have been lauded, the only reason she's not famous is that she refused to sign with a major label because they wanted to change her name, her looks, her music, her lyrics, and they wanted to own it all too. She wasn't interested. She doesn't want to be famous, she just wants her music to be heard. She owns the rights to all of her music and can do whatever she damn well pleases with it. Anyone who's interested can check her out on MySpace (she has 2 fan pages) or look for the Song Samples page on my web site. I'm just a fan, I don't work for her, and even though fans are always going to say THEIR person is the one people should be listening to, I don't have to push her too hard, all people have to do is take a listen.
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This whole thing is so upsetting to me. I'm a huge fan of Pandora, for one, and even though Internet radio stations haven't played a lot of artists I really love they've still played a lot of great music and don't deserve this burden.
There's been a lot of talk about how, if this stands, it'll be good for the indie artist, but there are so many indie artists and so few ever get heard. Will this make webcasters more aware of services like the Podcast Music Network and other services that offer podsafe music? Maybe, I don't know. Since audio standards for podcasts tend to be much lower than standards for internet radio streaming, there needs to be a place on the web where non-RIAA artists can upload as many high-quality rips of their music as they want.
I'll give everyone a good example. There's a woman named Happy Rhodes (it's her real name) who has been making great music for over 20 years. She has 10 albums released on indie labels and is unknown specifically because she's never been on a major label. She has 15 songs up at the Podcast Music Network and would have more except that 15 is their limit. She wouldn't appeal to everyone, but for those who like artists such as Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, maybe Tori Amos and Sarah McLachlan, she might be right up their alley. Her music is as high-quality, though done on a tiny budget with nothing left over for promotion. She's been completely unsigned for years and has been struggling to get an 11th album finished and realeased. With NO backing whatsoever, her career survives by word-of-mouth (and, yeah, a day job). Since she has a phenomenal voice, and is as talented as people you've actually heard of and have been lauded, the only reason she's not famous is that she refused to sign with a major label because they wanted to change her name, her looks, her music, her lyrics, and they wanted to own it all too. She wasn't interested. She doesn't want to be famous, she just wants her music to be heard. She owns the rights to all of her music and can do whatever she damn well pleases with it. Anyone who's interested can check her out on MySpace (she has 2 fan pages) or look for the Song Samples page on my web site. I'm just a fan, I don't work for her, and even though fans are always going to say THEIR person is the one people should be listening to, I don't have to push her too hard, all people have to do is take a listen.