From Where I Sit

Dave's mentioned in Scripting today about the USA Today article where many webcasters are going to go silent on Wednesday May 1, 2002, in protest to the Copyright Office's CARP recommendations.

I support them 100%.

For those of you who have been sleeping under a rock, let me bring you up to speed.  The Copyright Office has made recommendations, which resembles a Hillary Rosen - RIAA gift list, to set the fees webcasters would pay for playing any recorded music over the internet.  These fee would be based upon the number songs played x the of users. Without giving you a lesson in high mathmatics, the short answer is the amount of revenue these fees would require many webcasters to pay would put about 90% of the webcasters out of business in short order.

At a gathering of webcasters at the recent NAB2002, many webcasters expressed deep concerns that if the CARP recommendations were enacted they would not only put most webcasters out of business, but deeply in debt that would never be able to be repaid, because the CARP fees are retroactive.

This was a legislation was supposed to encourage business growth and give a level playing field to the industry not kill it.  

According to SaveInternetRadio.org

"Most webcasters are planning the May 1st "Day of Silence" to begin at dawn in their time zone and end in late evening. Some webcasters plan to go entirely silent, while others plan to replace their music streams with periods of silence interspersed with public service announcements on the subject. (Some webcasters also plan to broadcast or direct listeners to an all-day talk show on the issues produced by WOLF FM's Steve Wolf.)

Webcasters that will be participating in the "Day of Silence" include the majority of the top-rated independent webcasters, including AllDanzRadio (various formats), Choice Radio (various formats), ChronixRadio (rock), ClevelandHits.com (CHR), CyberRadio2000 (various formats), Digitally Imported (various forms of electronica), HardRadio (rock), iNetProgramming (bluegrass and other formats), Internet Radio Hawai'i (Hawaiian music), KING-FM/Seattle (classical), KPIG/Freedom, CA (Americana), M4Radio (indie rock), Mostly Classical (classical), Radio Paradise (AAA), Radioio (AAA) and RAIN Radio (several formats).

Other webcasters planning to participate include SomaFM (electronica), 3WK (alternative), TwangTownUSA (country), Twangcast (country), Ultimate-80s (Eighties), Village Voice Radio (eclectic), WCSB/Cleveland (various), WICB-FM (Ithica College), and WOLF FM (70s-80s-90s).

Webcasters who may not go silent but who plan to support the effort with heavy schedules of PSAs (that will include a moment of silence — e.g., "Here's what Internet radio may sound like on May 22nd...") include Beethoven.com (classical), Live365.com (various formats), ClassicalMusicDetroit (classical), Shoutcast (various formats), Winamp Radio (various formats), and numerous other college and noncommercial webcasters. "

3:24:20 AM    

LA Times reported on Monday...  That EMI and Liquid Audio have started a new CD Music/Burning service called BurnitFirst.com

"EMI and Liquid Audio today are expected to roll out the first online music service from a major record company that trusts consumers not to share the music they buy with pirates."

"The service, called BurnItFirst, has two features unique among major-label offerings online: The songs can be kept permanently, and they all can be recorded onto a CD. Although the songs have electronic locks to deter copying, those locks vanish as soon as the music burns onto a disc."

In the beginning the burnitfirst service will be limited to EMI's Christian Music catalogue and the subscription will be $10 for 20 songs per month.

"Consumers have spoken loudly. They want to have the freedom to burn music," Jay Samit, VP of new media said. "We have no problem with that. We just want to make sure our artists can make a living from music and are compensated for that."

Well imagine that!

12:38:44 AM