Internet Radio

It is time for me to vent a bit. I love music. OK that might be pushing it. I like certain types of music. Country definitely isn't one of them. But that is a story for another day. I am continually frustrated by the RIAA and others in continually trying to revamp and add additional wording to laws and regulations.

One of the more recent conflicts is between AOL and Soundexchange. I would have never dreamt I would fall on the side of AOL for anything. However, here I stand in support of AOL.

Let me back up a little, as most of you know a few years ago. They have sued thousands of people for "illegally" downloading music. Since then, they have gone after internet radio stations and over the air radio stations.

Now in this specific case AOL is actually complaining about the rates. Now again, I have not love lost for AOL but they have had one of the best online radio services on the net. Until recently they were partnered up with XM. They now have an agreement with CBS and are preparing to offer some additional services like song skipping. You can find out more about thier radio program and new items coming via their website at music.aol.com

Now back to my frustration. In a blog from AOL posted on 4/30/08, AOL spoke about thier contract with XM Radio:

"Today the partnership between AOL Radio and XM Satellite Radio ended. As you may or may not be aware, XM’s business is focused on having consumers pay for their channels and AOL's business has changed from subscription based to advertising supported, so we are no longer able to offer XM’s channels. In addition, the record labels have dramatically increased the music royalty rates paid for
Internet Radio. This action by the record labels left us no choice but to look
for an alternative way to stay in the internet radio business. These new rates
have impacted the entire internet radio industry, not just AOL. SoundExchange is the organization that is responsible for the increased fees and we have tried over and over to work with them to adjust the rates to a fair level to no avail.
If you would like to voice your support of lowering these fees to protect the future of Internet Radio, please feel free to email John Simson, SoundExchange Executive Director at info@soundexchange.com or call him at (202) 640-5890.
...
The AOL Radio staff is very passionate about what we do and we work very hard to give you the best radio experience possible. We understand that change is hard and but we must adapt to the changing times in order to keep AOL Radio available for our listeners...."

Now I do think they are whining just a bit. However, like I said earlier, they are amongst the best internet radio provider on the net.

Now here is a little jab back from Soundexchange:

"Even as the music industry undergoes dramatic shifts as a business, these facts remain constant: it takes enormous dedication, creativity, perseverance, hard work and investment to produce music for all to enjoy.
We are a group made up of musical recording artists (ranging from not-so-well-known independents to Grammy recipients), individuals who work in the recording industry, friends and families of recording artists and fans of a wide variety of music. While we are an otherwise diverse group, we are united in our desire to see that recording artists are fairly compensated for the music they create.
Music fans today enjoy sound recordings in ways that were not available even a scant two years ago, and the technologies will continue to rapidly evolve. Those recording artists and content owners deserve fair compensation regardless of the technology that delivers the music – whether it’s via Internet radio, satellite radio or over-the-air radio.
Internet Radio: The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) recently established new rates that would result in a royalty fee of 65 cents per every 40 hours of our music streamed per listener (40 hours is the average amount of time an Internet user listens per month).
Satellite Radio: Proceedings are underway before the CRB to determine fair royalty rates to be paid by satellite radio.
Over-the-air Radio: The U.S. is the only country in the industrialized world that does not mandate payments to recording artists and content owners for music played over-the-air. We strongly believe this unfair exception in copyright law needs to be addressed by Congress.
There is resistance to the idea of fair compensation for those who create the music. That resistance comes from Internet, satellite and over-the-air operators. They claim to want to pay something, but not fair value. We think this is a fundamental issue of fairness. After all, these businesses are built almost entirely around the playing of music, and the creators of that music should be fairly compensated.
The idea that major corporations and their supporters in Congress continually try to drive down the value of the music these corporations use to build their businesses offends the creators of music.
..."

Don't get me wrong. I do believe the artists should be compensated for thier work. But going after "Over-the-air Radio" because we are the "only country inthe industrialized world that does not mandate payments"? Unbelievable. Once upon a time, not that long ago, it was over the air radio that made or broke new artists. Much like spandex, it is a privelage not a right. Heck people didn't know who you were unless your song made it on air.

Now instead of saying play my song please, the industry (and some artists) now want to be payed if thier song is chosen to air. Unfortunately the same is happening with internet radio. In my opinion it has gotten too far out of hand.

Out for now, but i'll post more on the issue later.