Pending Internet Radio legislation - Not Good!

[GomJabbar]

Below is from an email I received from Live365.com (links preserved). It is an internet radio provider that I use a lot. Café Cody, arguably my favorite station is one of those affected. I am concerned about the new bill...

LIVE365.COM
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April 27, 2007
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Re: Ask your Representative to cosponsor the Internet Radio Equality Act!

Dear Live365 Listener,


The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) recently denied webcasters' requests for a rehearing on its ruling of unfairly high new royalty rates -- a stunning 300 to 1200 percent increase -- for Internet radio for period 2006-2010.

Internet radio is singled out from all other radio, burdened with fees not paid by AM or FM stations, and at rates at least 3-4 times paid by satellite and cable radio. The ruling even included absurd minimum of $500 per station per year to penalize the smallest webcasters with the highest rates.

Should this ruling stand, many of your favorite stations will be silenced. You will find Live365's 260 genres reduced to the same meager, homogenized list carried on AM/FM radio, because the unfair rates would drive webcasters in niche genres with unique content unavailable elsewhere out of business.

You can, however, help protect your favorite tunes of your favorite DJs from being silenced.

The Internet Radio Equality Act (HR 2060) has been introduced in Congress by Representative Jay Inslee (D-WA). A simple phone call to your Representative to ask for their support on this Bill will go a long way toward ensuring your right to diversity and choice in radio. Better yet, please also write and fax to show how serious you are. They need to know how much your music means to you.

Click here for the number of your Representative. Call NOW!

Sincerely,
Mark Lam
CEO, Live365
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To learn how your single call can make the difference, visit www.live365.com/choice, and the SaveNetRadio Coalition we formed with listeners, webcasters, artists, and labels: www.savenetradio.org.

Action Alert

CALL YOUR CONGRESSPERSON NOW TO ASK THEM TO CO-SPONSOR H.R. 2060, THE INTERNET RADIO EQUALITY ACT.

There is a bill just introduced in Congress that will save Internet radio from the devastating royalty fee increases that will put thousands of Internet webcasters out of business on May 15th. Please call your Representative in Congress as soon as possible and urge them to co-sponsor H.R. 2060, the Internet Radio Equality Act.

CAFÉ CODY is a vast panorama of Chillout, designed with sensuous retro and futuristic sounds providing a rich listening experience mixed and evolved for you from the Balearic Island Mallorca, Spain.

Enjoyed in the fashionable bars, clubs, cafés, and boutiques of more than 80 countries, CAFÉ CODY has become the Chillout Internet broadcast leader in the United States, Spain, the United Kingdom, Canada, Latin America, and Japan.

CAFÉCODY.com, one of the most listened to stations on Live 365, may be leaving soon due to new US royalty rates.

[ryengineer]

Should this ruling stand, many of your favorite stations will be silenced.

Although, I am not a radio fan but this news is truly nasty for radio fans. I hope the ruling won't stand.

[gator]

I ALWAYS have atleast one shoutcast station open whenever I work on a computer. Internet radio is awesome, it seems like this bill is going to make many fans unhappy.

[Purcy]

I listen to Cafe Cody too, but almost always have one of my favorite Listen Live jazz radio stations playing from other cities; it is awesome that you can listen to radio from so far away. I sometimes have my PDA connected to an internet radio station for several hours a day, as I play some games or just sit and relax. This is such an awesome treasure to be able to do this, hope this gets resolved fairly & quickly. Thanks for the info.

[jdhurst]

This is nothing more (unhappily) than Greed Personified at work. It has been years (decades?) since I have a record player in the house, and years before that since I have seen a 45 single. So for years, we have had to pay a high price for an album with one song and then much drivel for the rest of it. The rebellion that followed (cheap songs and piracy) was predictable. The backlash is to subject people to punishing royalties because much of what this industry wants to sell (one thing plus drivel) is no longer saleable. I, too, hope it gets stopped. ... JDH

[tomh009]

RIAA is run by idiots, but unfortunately that's not news.

However, the fabulous thing about the Internet is that even if RIAA goes ahead with this moronic plan, it will still be possible to listen to net radio from other countries.

[GomJabbar]

However, the fabulous thing about the Internet is that even if RIAA goes ahead with this moronic plan, it will still be possible to listen to net radio from other countries.

I guess that's true, but I already have a paid subscription to Live365.com. I pay it once a year ($47.40 = $3.95/mo) to get their best rate for commercial-free access. They do offer free access, but you do have to listen to the occasional commercial and you are limited to fewer stations.

EDIT: At any rate, if this legislation goes through, I am sure it will result in the demise of a number of internet radio stations located in the USA.

[mhm]

...it will still be possible to listen to net radio from other countries.

While it is not possible to listen to US radio from other countries... at least for Q1043 it returns:

Licensed Content Access Request

Your IP Address: x.x.x.x

Due to licensing restrictions, we are not able to allow access to the content you are requesting from outside the United States. If you currently reside in the United States, please select one of the options below to process your request. Please allow up to 60 hours to process your request.

No, thanks! I can hear the same songs somewhere else.

[GomJabbar]

I received the following email from Café Cody this morning...

Dear Café Cody Listener,

The following link will help explain what is going on with Internet radio.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18384667/si ... k/from/ET/

Much like David Byrne quoted in the article, because we have a large listenership in 90 countries, we currently spend $2,000 to $3,000 a month to pay for bandwidth and royalties out of pocket to broadcast Café Cody on Live 365, but under the new ruling our cost would go up to around $50,000 or more a month.

Café Cody is a labor of love with no outside income source. We try to craft programming that would be enjoyed at work and at home. The reason we have created Café Cody as a non-commercial inovative music station is our desire to provide much better music than would be heard on terrestrial or satellite radio. A major portion of the CDs that we buy come from small independent and mostly European record labels. The major record labels and large radio chains are backing the extraordinary rate hike as a way to stop Internet radio which they perceive as competitive to their bland and boring productions. This is simply US corporate greed at it’s worst.

Some of you have sent testimonials about Café Cody and we ask that all of you who enjoy this station do likewise. We hope to go for venture capital with which we would create a European network similar to Live 365 allowing a place for the many small broadcasters to land, and your positive comments would help make this possible.

Thank you for listening to Café Cody.

Muchas Gracias,

Cody
Deia de Mallorca,
Islas Baleares
Spain
cody@cafecody.com

EDIT: The Newsweek article linked to in the email above is quite interesting reading. Check it out!