The Music Nazis are at it again...

Those wonderful people who lead to nearly bankrupting Internet radio once are ready to do it again.  This time they're out to sink virtually all Internet radio.

Contrary to popular belief, playing records on the radio or on the Internet isn't free.  Broadcasters and Webcasters have to pay huge amounts of money to licensing firms for the privilege of promoting someone's music. 

Over the air radio stations generally pay a percentage of their gross revenues. Not so for Internet Radio, which according to the mandates of the Copyright Royalty Board, a division of the Library of Congress, webcasters will have to pay per song and per listener.  A minimum of $500 per year for the smallest webcasters, and that amount can skyrocket to hundreds of thousands for the most popular sites. 

To call this decision unpopular is the biggest understatement since we read HW's lips and found out just how truth challenged he was!  But not just among the "usual suspects".  Everyone from virtually every online broadcaster, terrestrial radio stations, even syndicators and hosts like myself realize just how much this can cost them in the long run.  The big National Association of Broadcasters found itself allied with National Public Radio which found itself allied with, of all people, Rush Limbaugh. 

Do I think that performers and composers should benefit from their works?  Absolutely.  But how does it benefit performers to have their work suddenly not available through the hundreds of legitimate webcasters willing to pay a reasonable stipend for the right to promote their works?   Further, by driving the legitimate webcasters out of business, the CRB decision will drive the webcasting industry undergroud where they'll be unable to secure any revenue for the artists.  Is that in the artist's best interests? 

Now here's the real question...

What about Myspace?  Numerous artists have posted pages there with clips of their music.  Will they be required to pay-for-play as well?  After all, they are profiting from their own works? Why shouldn't they pay?  What about streaming media on an artist's own web site?  Pay-for-play? 

And how much of this money will "trickle down" to the artists after the bureaucracies take their pieces of the pie?  Very little in all reality.  Ask any composer how much their ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC checks are, and you'll get the answer.  These "rights" organizations do little to benefit their composers in the long run but profit their big salaried executives.  Will the CRB be any better?  Not hardly.

Enjoy free internet radio while it lasts.  Unless wiser heads prevail, it won't last for long.  And that's truly sad. 

 

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