p2pnet - rss feed: Web radio June 26 Sound Off
p2pnet.net news:- Online radio stations are planning to Sound Off for 24 hours on June 26, echoing a 24 hour protest when broadcasters found Silence was Golden in a 24-protest over the 2000-05 CARP decision, generating an impressive amount of media and public interest.
They switched off again last month and, why couldn’t a Day of Silence work for a third time, this time to highlight the iniquities of the Copyright Royalty Board decision to hike royalty rates paid by Net radio stations for 2006-2010 for streaming music?
That’s what RAIN’s Kurt Hanson is wondering, saying, “If the rates are left unchanged, virtually all independent webcasters will be bankrupted and most larger parent companies would logically shut down their Internet radio divisions through the end of the 2005-10 period.”
Webcasters will be, “alerting their listeners that ’silence’ is what Internet radio may sound like on or shortly after July 15th, the day on which 17 months’ worth of retroactive royalty increase payments are due to the SoundExchange collection organization under the terms of a recent Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) decision,” he says, pointing out the date was earmarked by the the SaveNetRadio.org coalition.
“Although a royalty rate like this is typically 4% to 5% of revenues in other media (e.g., satellite radio), for other rights (e.g., the musical compositions), and in other countries, the rates set by the CRB judges equate to roughly 50% of revenues for large webcasters like Yahoo! LAUNCHcast (and probably many terrestrial station streamers), 150% to 300% of revenues for small webcasters like AccuRadio, Radioio, and Digitally Imported, and, for webcasters with large numbers of channels like Rhapsody and Pandora, well more than 1,000% of revenues.”
The first day of silence principally involved smaller webcasters, but this year’s version, “appears as if it will have the support of larger players as well, possibly including Yahoo! LAUNCHcast, Pandora, Live365, MTV Online, many NPR-member and other noncommercial stations, and many yahoo musicterrestrial broadcast groups that currently stream their signals on the web,” says Hanson.
Most webcasters plan to start their Days of Silence at dawn in their time zones, ending them in late evening.
He’s also suggesting listeners call their representatives in Congress on the sound off day to ask them to support the “Internet Radio Equality Act” (IREA) (H.R. 2060 in the House and S. 1353 in the Senate) and to call or write their local newspapers to ask for editorial support for the bill.
“The IREA would vacate the CRB’s decision, while instituting an interim performance royalty rate of 7.5% of revenues (similar to the rate paid by satellite radio services) and change the standard used for future CRB proceedings to the standard typically used in other Copyright Office proceedings (which balances the needs of copyright owners, copyright users, and the general public),” says RAIN. “The bill currently has 118 co-sponsors in the House and is gathering support in the Senate.”
Also See:
2000-05 CARP decision - The World according to CARP, April 25, 2002
RAIN - Day of silence: June 26, June 21, 2007
Internet Radio Equality Act - SoundExchange slams IRE act, May 1, 2007
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
June 21st, 2007 at 9:49 pm
As in many cases like this, I am afraid that while many web sites and blogs will make a majo deal about this event, many people will just go on as if mothing happened.
I mean really, how many people would go in a major rampaige if even alocal radio sation went off the air in this age?
I personally would probably not even notice.
Sure if there was a program that one regularly listened to, and you missed an eppisode because of this protest, it may people miffed, but only one day?
I can only hope that this doesn’t just force people to go back to conventional radio or other privately run underground stations.
Just my two cents…