Comments on: Pandora says Net radio vote is too close to call

Web radio stations engage in last-minute lobbying of lawmakers before Congress is set to vote on a bill that could mean life or death for the services.

[Core_M]

As far as I know, this is only a US thing. Web radio in any country other than the states is totally legal. Why they want to shut down only web broadcasters is beyond me. But oh well, I listen to a Montreal (Quebec) based radio station anyways, and occasionally one from Paris. Still, why the Americans would want to crush their own web radio stations while other stations broadcasting from around the world do it totally legally is, again, beyond me...

[ukcannonfodder]

As an extra note there is also an anti-trust investigation going on regarding the RIAA (Sony, Universal, Warner & EMI) and now, News Corp (Rupert Murdoch) who own Myspace (& FOX) and are one of the driving forces behind the MPAA, as are Sony, Universal, Warner(Whom are members of the RIAA also).

http://www.dailytech.com/Independent+Music+Group+Blasts+MySpace+Music+for+Lack+of+Support/article13068.htm

Fta: MySpace Music hears the antitrust song

Indies call foul at exclusion

MySpace Music offers a service, using technology from Audible Magic, which allows indie labels to upload their own music. But scores of labels have reported they've been blocked from uploading their catalogs, even though they own the rights. A stumbling block appears to be the metadata database administered for MySpace by Audible Magic. If, as is commonplace, a major label owns territorial rights to a piece of indie music somewhere in the world, then the "ownership" is assumed to belong to the major label, not the independent. Which means that a US major pockets the royalty revenue for a British indie label.

[ukcannonfodder]

It's because they want to control the distribution so they can force their manufactured, talentless, pretty face, junk via MySpace and other such sites.

They, is the RIAA/Criaa/BPI/IFPI/SoundStage, Ect: Sony, Warner, Universal and EMI.

Its simply CORPORATE GREED with the backing of the US congress.

Couldn't webcasters bypass all RIAA affiliated music to avoid extortionate royalty rates, well NO because the Gatekeepers don't want you to listen to any Indie music as it diverts revenue away from them!

As we had with the Payola deals (RIAA pay to only play their music on the radio)

Now we have this, which makes it impossible for any Indie artist to succeed without signing their soul over to the Gatekeepers


http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/29/0335224&from=rss

fta: "With the furor over the impending rate hike for Internet radio stations, wouldn't a good solution be for streaming internet stations to simply not play RIAA-affiliated labels' music and focus on independent artists? Sounds good, except that the RIAA's affiliate organization SoundExchange claims it has the right to collect royalties for any artist, no matter if they have signed with an RIAA label or not. 'SoundExchange (the RIAA) considers any digital performance of a song as falling under their compulsory license. If any artist records a song, SoundExchange has the right to collect royalties for its performance on Internet radio. Artists can offer to download their music for free, but they cannot offer their songs to Internet radio for free ... So how it works is that SoundExchange collects money through compulsory royalties from Webcasters and holds onto the money. If a label or artist wants their share of the money, they must become a member of SoundExchange and pay a fee to collect their royalties.'"

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/4/24/141326/870

[HlLLARY CLITON]

Im on the edge of my seat....listening to Pandora for what may be the final time :(

[aka_tripleB]

Why is congress regulating net radio? Should that be a FCC thing?

[dascha1]

Get over it and move on to create something *new*. Go for a 'talking Web' instead, to help inform folks who need assistance, and let music catch-up somewhere down the road.

[ukcannonfodder]

As an extra note there is also an anti-trust investigation going on regarding the RIAA (Sony, Universal, Warner & EMI) and now, News Corp (Rupert Murdoch) who own Myspace (& FOX) and are one of the driving forces behind the MPAA, as are Sony, Universal, Warner(Whom are members of the RIAA also).

http://www.dailytech.com/Independent+Music+Group+Blasts+MySpace+Music+for+Lack+of+Support/article13068.htm

Fta: MySpace Music hears the antitrust song

Indies call foul at exclusion

MySpace Music offers a service, using technology from Audible Magic, which allows indie labels to upload their own music. But scores of labels have reported they've been blocked from uploading their catalogs, even though they own the rights. A stumbling block appears to be the metadata database administered for MySpace by Audible Magic. If, as is commonplace, a major label owns territorial rights to a piece of indie music somewhere in the world, then the "ownership" is assumed to belong to the major label, not the independent. Which means that a US major pockets the royalty revenue for a British indie label.