[Teeppoodiug]

I say ban internet radio, then the music industry will get less exposure and wither away and die hopefully........

[MarlboroCig]

This isn't legislation -- rather it's a decision by the Copyright Royalty Board, an arm of the Library of Congress.

http://www.loc.gov/crb/

Don't know that any kind of petition will have an impact.

[Vcwdldva]

I think the basic facts of it are important to establish. For instance, are there any appeals left?

[timgreyuvcz]

I also love Pandora. Too bad I can't subscribe to it, being Canadian.

[newpiknicker]

Originally posted by MightyTiny
In any case, Pandora's founder essentially stated that if these new rules come to effect, Pandora's dead. And that really sucks. Agree, Pandora is great, I would hate to see it go away

But why is it that only Americans may sign the petition?

[BruceQW]

In the end, this will be just US record companies shooting themselves in the foot again. In their pettiness they're killing the people that pay them right now.

If this royalty increase goes through, the net radio industry will simply move offshore and the US record labels won't get a dime.

[Sandra_18X]

Originally posted by MightyTiny
Hi,

I just received e-mail from the founder of Pandora.com, which is an internet radio site, a great favourite of mine.

It appears that there's a piece of legislation that may get passed in the US that would effectively kill internet radio sites, and Tim Westergren (the Pandora guy) is asking all internet radio users to sign a petition to stop the legislation... the only problem is that the petition is looking for US citizens only.

I really love that site - they respond to feedback better than any site I know, and the site concept is awesome; it essentially analyzes your musical tastes based on feedback you give, and you can create custom stations that fit whatever you are looking for. I've found many artists that I never knew about through that site, and I'd HATE to lose it. Which is why I'm hoping that some Americans here also consider the threat to Internet radio serious enough to warrant their signature.

The new legislation would dramatically increase the royalty payments that internet radios have to pay (anywhere from 300% to 1200% increase ), and - get this - the new rates would be applied retroactively from January 1st 2006, which would mean that pretty much every internet radio site would go immediately bankrupt once the new legislation took effect.

The petition can be found here:
http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/...lertid=9631541 There is seemingly no end to the greed of the music industry. This has always gone on in one form or another - taping of the radio and so on and so forth.

Too much power held by too few

[stunnyravytal]

Originally posted by MightyTiny


Yes, probably, but then again, while internet radio is a great way to find more obscure artists (that's what I use it for), I don't think that most internet radios exclude more popular artists.

For example, the idea of Pandora is to allow you to customize radio stations to fit your personal tastes, and the concept wouldn't really work if it ONLY included non-mainstream artists... Pandora has pretty large and varied database of music, and I can well imagine that offering such variety would become financially unsustainable with the sort of increases proposed.

In any case, Pandora's founder essentially stated that if these new rules come to effect, Pandora's dead. And that really sucks. so it sounds like this petition isnt so much about saving internet radio generally, as it is about saving Pandora's business model.

My earlier post is thus more apropos than I thought.

[tattcasetle]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


so it sounds like this petition isnt so much about saving internet radio generally, as it is about saving Pandora's business model.

My earlier post is thus more apropos than I thought. The change is that net radio royalties will be priced out of the reach of the vast majority of current webcasters, because of lobbying by RIAA.

[JesikaFclq]

A bit more info... a good article on this looming disaster from informationweek:
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/...ght_royal.html

[TerriLS]

Besides, it's clear that the CRB is not trying to retroactively punish the webcasters. The ruling gives the structure:

0.0008 per play (2006) -> 0.0019 per play (2010). Having that drastic of a structure means that the webcasters won't be overly punished for 2006 since it's less than half of the ultimate rate...

It sounds to me like some webcasters were webcasting for free and are hoping to get away with a year of not paying to play. I don't particularly support that, sorry.

[gomosopions]

Internet radio is awesome and well worth the price. I'm sure people will still pay for it at a higher price. I know I will.

[viagbloggerz]

Originally posted by MightyTiny
Simply because the $500 minimum charge per station - that means that any customized stations are out (What customer would agree to cover the cost of a station alone? Would you pay $500+ for a station customized to your musical tastes?) No that's too much. Are you sure of this?

[DownloadADOBEsoftware]

Bummer. I'll sign a petition and do whatever I can.