The Day the Music Died (Online)
Tuesday, June 26th, 2007;
-- Janet Driscoll Miller |
Today across the Internet, many net radio sites are participating in a day of silence to protest an impending rate hike of royalties fees that goes into effect on July 15. The rate increase, according to SaveNetRadio.org, is retroactive to January 1, 2006, meaning net radio stations will immediately owe over 18 months of back royalty fees.
The Copyright Royalty Board was created in 2005 to establish royalty rates for broadcast material. Congress directly controls the board.
On March 2, 2007, the Copyright Royalty Board, the organization that oversees royalty fees paid by Internet radio sites, decided to increase royalty rates by 300-1200%. According to the SaveNetRadio.org website, Internet radio royalty fees are already more than double the royalty fees paid by satellite radio providers. Doesn’t seem quite right.
Yahoo! Music has supported this day of silence by shutting down its free LAUNCHcast service today. On the Yahoo! Music’s blog, Yahoo! does a great job of explaining some common myths about its music service:
Myth: Yahoo! (and other big Webcasters) can “afford†these rates.
Fact: LAUNCHcast loses money under these rates, Yahoo! has no appetite to run radio as a loss-leader.Myth: All Internet radio should be for-pay subscription.
Fact: Less than 3% of our radio listeners are subscribers. Subscription is a feature for users who would prefer no interruptions, not an interesting business for anyone.Myth: Radio drives tons of users into Yahoo! and therefore Yahoo! will operate radio at a deficit.
Fact: Not only is this a terrible way to structure an Internet business ecosystem so that it grows, it’s just not true. We’re fortunate to be a part of Yahoo!, the most visited network on the Internet, and the traffic the network drives to us is what makes us so popular. Not vice versa.
If you’re an avid listener to Internet radio like me (I highly recommend KBCO out of Boulder, CO) and don’t want to see a homogenized, Clear Channel-driven Internet radio world, contact your congress and make your voice heard on this issue.
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June 26th, 2007 at 9:30 am
The irony is that KBCO is a Clear Channel station.
June 26th, 2007 at 10:35 am
Very well put. I think though that a lot of current stations will move services overseas, and that would also be my recommendation ;).
see my short article on the subject : http://www.tech-intelligence.com/50226711/how_to_kill_free_internet_ra dio.php
June 26th, 2007 at 11:26 am
I couldn’t find in the article why the rates are some much higher for internet radio than satellite?
June 26th, 2007 at 11:27 am
Fitness Guy : I think that could be because there is none ?
June 26th, 2007 at 11:46 am
Is it just me or does this really suck. The number of stations that will shut down in July will be enormous.
June 26th, 2007 at 11:51 am
Jaan, you are absolutely correct. Fortunately, if you just go for music, there are a lot of stations hosted out of Europe. This law has can’t stop them (yet).
June 26th, 2007 at 11:56 am
SAVE THE MUSIC! Please contact your congressmen if you have not done so already.
June 28th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
[...] He’s also one of the first musicians I remember to start a blog, which he mainly devoted to talking about baseball at the time if I remember correctly. Recently, he started doing an online radio show (which is probably in jeopardy of getting yanked off the air due to some new regulations) and for generally being a guy who started listening to records when they were actually records, he always tends to be a step ahead of the bigshots when it comes to these things. [...]