The day the music dies
After decades of talking and singing about it, the date for the death of music has finally been set -- it's Tuesday. No, not really, but many webcasters including Live365, Launchcast, MTV, RealNetworks and others will pull the plug on their broadcasts that day to protest the looming increase in the royalty rates they pay. It is being billed as a "Day of Silence."
As we have written about before, many webcasters say the new rates are so high they will be forced off the air. The new rates are scheduled to kick on July 15th. Legislation is working its way through Congress that would knock down the new rates, which were levied by SoundExchange.
"On Tuesday, thousands of webcasters will call on their millions of listeners to join the fight to save internet radio and contact their Congressional representatives to ask for their support of the Internet Radio Equality Act," declared Jake Ward, spokesman for the SaveNetRadio coalition.
2 comments:
So, where does the FMC stand on the issue?
I see in your blog where you previoousl wanted the CRB to established tiered rates, but that was two months after they already decided on a single rate solution, and turned down the request for rehearing on the subject, so your opinion was moot by the time you voiced it.
Do you think the subsequent SoundExchange "offers" to small commercial and non-commercial webcasters were consistent with
FMC's goals?
Do you think the revenue and usage caps that SoundExchange wanted to impose were sufficient impediments to webcaster growth that they made the "offers" a meaningless gesture?
Do you think that the lack of am apparent stampede of webcasters to accept those "offers," constitutes evidence that the "offers" don't constitute what a "willing buyer and willing seller" would negotiate in terms of a royalty rate, as required by the DMCA?
Don't you think that lack of a response puts the lie to the SoundExchange spin that the offers are "less-than-market" rates?
If you think so, what does that say for the actual CRB rates?
So, where does FMC stand on the issue?
This issue is critical to the REAL future of music and the continuing development of a class of musical artists totally independent of the archaic business models that so desperately support the CRB rates.
Has there been any update to the FMC position, or are you still waiting for the CRB to come up with a tiered solution?
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