Το τέλος του Internet Radio?

[Κώστας Φ.]

Tα τελευταία χρόνια απολάμβανα καθημερινά τη μουσική μου μέσω streaming απο το Pandora.com.

Πρόσφατα η RIAA έβαλε το χεράκι της και φρόντισε να ανέβουν υπερβολικά τα royalty fees που πρέπει να πληρώνουν οι webcaster στην άλλη άκρη του Ατλαντικού, όπου βρίσκονται και τα περισσότερα ανάλογα site, με αποτέλεσμα το μέλλον του internet radio να κρίνεται πλέον αβέβαιο.

Αντιγράφω απο το blog του di.fm:

In March the United States Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) made a decision on what the webcasting royalties should be going forward and dating back starting with 2006.

The new fees, making us owe literally more than *two million dollars* due July 15th, do not take any realistic business model of a service such as ours and most others on the web into account. The short story translation is that Digitally Imported the company already owes just for 2006 many many times more in royalty fees than all combined revenue generated. Imagine a picture similar to if for every $1 we earn before even any expenses, we actually owe about $5 in royalty fees.

To make an analogy, imagine there was a law passed on an ice cream tax, and the tax rate depended on the number of visitors visiting your store rather than how much ice cream the store sold. So imagine the tax does not care if ice cream buyers came just to hang out and get a little bit of icecream - all ice cream stands would go out of business except those who sell wholesale mega packs to a few visitors in places like Sams Club or Costco, or Walmart if it was willing to loose money just to get you into their store.

The CRB judges completely ignored independent webcasters such as us and our business models, and adopted only a very high per song performance fee, without any kind of a provision for a percentage of revenue.

UNLESS THIS IS FIXED:
This situation spells doom for webcasting on the Internet, and many services such as Digitally Imported Radio will be forced to stop all public webcasting, switch to subscriptions only, or SHUT DOWN ENTIRELY - WITHIN MONTHS, IF NOT WEEKS!

OTHER FACTS:
- Terrestrial AM and FM stations in the USA pay absolutely nothing, for recording industry royalties due to a law made in consideration of promotion value that playing provides in return.

- Satellite Radio services pay 7.5% of revenue.

- So why must Internet Radio pay something that translates to 100-500% of revenue?

Click here για περισσότερα.

Περισσότερα (καθώς και πληροφορίες για το πως μπορείτε να βοηθήσετε) υπάρχουν στο: http://www.savenetradio.org/

Καταλαβαίνω ότι ο πνιγμένος πιάνεται απο τα μαλλιά του, αλλά η RIAA το έχει παραχ3σει.

 

[ak1s]

Το διάβασα και εγώ πριν καιρό. Πολύ κρίμα αν θα γίνει κάτι τέτοιο. Βέβαια το μόνο που καταφέρνουν είναι να τονίσουν την ευρηματικότητα και να απελευθερώσουν τις δυνάμεις της αντίστασης...:-D
Κάποιοι τρόποι θα βρεθούν. Μέχρι P2P radio έχω δει...

 

[Κώστας Φ.]

Απάντηση: Το τέλος του Internet Radio?

Sunday, The Beginning of the End for Internet Radio

Increased royalty fees may force some internet radio stations to shut down

Over the last year, the online music industry has been in what many call as a major shakeup. Music artists and labels represented by SoundExchange say they are being treated unfairly, receiving less than a fair amount of money being generated by online radio stations. SoundExchange has been lobbying Congress over the last year to force online radio stations to pay for or pay higher royalties for songs played.

Working closely with Congress, SoundExchange has successfully convinced the industry that increased royalties are a necessity. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has declined to put a stop on increased royalties. This Sunday, Internet radio stations will be slapped with a bill forcing them to pay higher royalties going forward and pay for music aired in 2006. By 2010, royalty rates will nearly triple what stations currently pay. Stations will also incur an annual fee of $500, but the annual fee hasn't been fully worked out. SoundExchange is unsure if it wants stations to pay $500 per station or per channel.

"This is just about the artists getting paid fairly. Artists and labels just want a fair share of the pie," said Richard Ades, a SoundExchange representative.

Late last month, many online stations banded together for a single day of silence, marking their stance against SoundExchange and its demands. Called "Day of Silence," the move created public awareness about how damaging the new proposed royalties could be. Despite the demonstration, SoundExchange chief executive John Simson said, the "rates are fair."

Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora, one of the largest Internet radio companies, said, although his company is able to pay for the new royalties he and his company would not go down without a fight. Pandora along with Yahoo, Rhapsody and Live365 represent the four largest Internet radio companies today. Whether large or small, all types of broadcasters will be affected. SoundExchange said it has taken this into account. Small and non-profit broadcasters will have a royalty cap of $50,000 per year -- still a very large amount.

"Nobody wins when Internet radio gets shut down, including artists who ostensibly are being represented by SoundExchange, the organization pushing for high rates. It's ironic. If SoundExchange gets their way, it means less money for musicians because people will cease to pay royalties all together," Westergren said.

Even with the cap, small broadcasters are still in distress. Michael Clark, owner of two small stations said that after Sunday, he would owe roughly $14,000 USD just for the holiday season of 2007. As for all the music that his station broadcasted during the 2006 year, Clark will owe $8000 on Sunday. One of Clark's stations already closed down because of the new changes and he was unsure of what to do after Sunday, he said.

Jake Sommers, owner of a similarly small station that plays jazz faced similar decisions and consequently closed down his station. Jazzplayradio.com closed on April 30th of this year when Sommers realized he would have to pay $2000 per month to keep his station of 20,000 listeners afloat.

"We never made a dime. It was a labor of love. Everything we made we put right back into radio station. It was a bunch of trumpet geeks playing music for other trumpet geeks," Sommers said.

As Patty Smyth once sang, "sometimes love just ain't enough."

dailytech.com

 

[Κώστας Φ.]

Για τους φίλους του Pandora...
Όπως θα γνωρίζετε εδώ και αρκετό καιρό το site δεν έπαιζε Ελλάδα. Τώρα σταμάτησε και στο UK.
Όμως σας έχω καλά νέα:
Κάνετε click εδώ, login κανονικά με το Pandora account σας, και απολαμβάνετε τις μουσικάρες σας! :happy_2:

Pandora is back! :cool_1: :cool_1: :cool_1: