June 26th, 2007
A National Day of Silence
From NPR: “Many fans of Internet radio will be tuning in to nothing on Tuesday, as many Webcasters participate in ‘A National Day of Silence.’ It is a protest against what Webcasters call excessive royalties on the music they stream. New royalty rates are set to take effect in little more than three weeks.”
The new royalty law that was passed could have a major effect on internet radio, most notably indie artists and companies. Looks like yet another blow to the industry as the new laws could put many of the internet radio companies out of business.
Read the whole article at NPR.
Written by Sean Klassen
Subscribe
View more articles about
On June 26th, 2007 at 11:03 am
Tim said:
I’m surprised Last.fm isn’t participating in this. Of course, Clear Channel isn’t either.
But Yahoo, MTV and Pandora are which is pretty cool.
I can understand the record labels point but there has to be a way to work with internet radio, instead of bully them around. If they have to shutdown because of costs, then the labels lose that revenue source.
Might as well work with them and figure out a way to install the tracking software at a low cost or just have them pay monthly radio fees.
Why lose a revenue source because you’re being too aggressive?
On June 27th, 2007 at 4:27 am
tunequest said:
Answer that question and you’ll understand how the majors have operated for the past seven years.
And I imagine that because last.fm is based in the UK, it’s not subject to U.S. copyright law. Thus, no silent protest. I guess that could change with the CBS acquisition.
On June 27th, 2007 at 11:49 am
Tim said:
Yeah, I just don’t understand why the majors don’t get it.
This is how they lose a revenue source by being too aggressive….they will shut down a TON of internet radio stations. In effect, they are losing that income.
The major labels need to learn to work with changes in the industry and the people that are causing the changes so music can keep expanding and everyone can cash in on it.
The majors just want a monopoly and control everything. It’s only hurting themselves. I can’t tell you how many A&R guys at major labels, that I know, say every has to watch their jobs and one major hasn’t signed a band in months.
Majors will continue to suffer unless they change their mentality. Simple as that.
If your own employees aren’t happy, then somethings wrong. I have yet to hear anyone at an Indie complain about their label. I’m sure it happens but not on the scale of the Majors.
On June 30th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
The Grim said:
Is this law pushed by the record labels, or is it regular radio behind the effort? I could see terrestrial radio being a little pissed at having to pay huge royalty rates while their online counterparts get off paying very little (this bill will just bring the two royalty rates on par). I think the majors are getting a bad rap for this, as I’m willing to bet it’s all pressure from broadcasters driving this issue.
At the same time, why doesn’t suburban home start selling its MP3s for 10 cents each? You’d sell more and make things more affordable for everyone. Yeah, it’s a dumb idea, but wanting to get what you feel you deserve for your work isn’t shameful. Sometimes you have to “destroy a revenue stream” to keep things on demand. Since all you folks who read this site think you’re brilliant businessmen, hopefully you’ll understand that gross revenue and profitability are two totally, totally different things.