As I’m sure I’ve mentioned time and time again I’m a huge listener to online streaming radio. I’ve found it offers a better selection and I find I can pick up on new bands / artists upto a year before they become popular over here which is obviously a bonus because it means I can enjoy a song before it’s ass raped to death on local and national commercial radio in the UK. However, a while back the ever “pro-choice” American congress passed a bill that would see the people behind Internet radio paying an insane amount of royalties per track, which when combined with the fact that these were to be retroactively billed would put most broadcasters out of business. The fact that these hikes in royalties didn’t apply to traditional medium really got people riled up as it was obviously a way of traditional companies who are frightened of the competition that new technology can offer trying to run it into the ground before it even gets mainstream attention.
In support of all the Internet radio stations broadcasting from America that are taking part in the day of silence. I wish I could help, but there’s not a lot for us foreigners to do apart from sign up our details. If you are based in the US, though, now is the time to lobby your congressmen / senator or whatever it is you have over there to make sure that today’s day of silence isn’t what the future of Net radio will be. If we don’t act now the estimated 72million regular net radio listeners will have no music.
Tens of thousands of Internet radio stations are silent today in protest of the Copyright Royalty Board’s decision to significantly raise royalty rates that will threaten the business of many webcasters. The stations beg readers to get in touch with their Senators and Representatives, but with the deadline for retroactive fees only weeks away is it all a little too late?
Diiiiig it
B
