Comments on: Web radio, music industry reach agreement on royalties

After two years of negotiations, larger online radio stations agree to pay music industry 25 percent of revenue or a flat per-stream rate, whichever is greater.

[xav_sd]

No mention of non-profit radio stations, nor college radio. Would like to know how this agreement affects them. Thanks

[sandonet]

Xav_sd

I'm on it. I'll get that info if it exists. Give me 20 mins.

[dascha1]

Yes, get on it. As I understand it from popular and unpopular votes freedom is for ALL these days:

http://www.copyright.gov/licensing/notice-use-2008-5-29.pdf

This list no doubt has most likely either grown or shrunk in 2009, or disappeared.

[dascha1]

By golly it has grown (not shrunk) this year-

http://tinyurl.com/nmgcvp

[Random_Walk]

Agreed on what xav asked. Apparently, the RIAA cartel decided that they couldn't squeeze Internet Radio anymore, so they decided to start squeezing the terrestrial radio stations now... (most stations play an ad detailing some of what it's about).

[ibeetle]

This is the way you treat your customers. Tell them exactly what is happening. Tell them why it is happening, and finally give them the best possible price.

SiriusXM has to decided to just send out an email without any explanation that royalties have to be paid and starting immediately they will be. And screw the lowest possible price; instead they use it as a money grab and gouge the customer charging many more times the royalty rate.

Every month Sirius is losing listeners. And every months businesses like Pandora (and others) are gaining listeners... gee I wonder why.


Hey, FCC I understand you allowed SiriusXM to charge back to its customers the royalty rates; thats fine. But, why is it that they are charging $2.00 for rates that only cost them about $0.60?

[ddesy]

As you can tell, SiriusXM is desperate, that's why. They need to make a bigger profit since their programming quality is declining and customers are leaving.

I just canceled my subscription to Sirius, and within a week daily calls trying to get me back started. The first day I told them to not call me again, but it didn't matter.

[BigAl35540]

Because the FCC, NAB and the ENTIRE radio industry are in bed with each other! The customer be damned! Profit is the ONLY focus! The FCC doesn't REGULATE like they were created to do, their sole purpose is to make radio station owner's wallets fatter! It's time to replace the FCC with an organization that regulates the industry That includes time off the air for maintenance mandatory like it used to be and enforce standards of sound quality. Maybe then FM radio station's would drop that disgusting Optimod device that butchers audio so horribly! Also maybe then we'd quit having overmodulated splattering stations on the band! Boy was that a STUPID DECISION to let Sirius and XM merge into one non-competitive entity! Competition is always good! That's why I listen to Shoutcast streams exclusively on the Internet now! Oh and Live365 and Pandora? NOBODY in their right mind is going to listen to them when you have to use their substandard proprietary push windowed players when you can tune in FAR SUPERIOR quality music and sound quality using Winamp or one of the other players and just get the music you want to hear in fabulous CD quality sound with NO COMMERCIAL INTERRUPTIONS EVER!! It's those guys who are threatened the most by this royalties thing! It's time to say NO to the RIAA, SoundExchange, the NAB and the FCC! We'll all be better off for it!

[Pete Bardo]

And I'm curious as to who gets the money, how is it split up? Who decides who gets the money? Bet you SoundExchange keeps most of it for administration? Further, I'd bet you that when my song gets streamed I will get nothing and someone else will get my 0.08 cents.

[lawsonmusicmedia]

Its still too high. Absurdly high and ridiculously difficult to manage the reporting requirements.

[Thozman]

Naa, this doesn't wash with me at all.
Any site that has the RIAA's hands in it can only mean trouble.

I'd rather listen to somebody plunkin on a rubberband then to give the RIAA one penny.

[martin_c_e]

I'm with the NAB. Streaming music services are ok; but one spends a lot a time listening to hear something new. HD2 radio stations improve on availability of specific tastes.

The music industry thinks sales are poor now; just wait until there are less stations to play music. I, for one, only buy music that I have heard. I have been burned too many times on albums with only one hit song.

[ddesy]

Looking for "hit" songs is your problem. I have yet to find a station that plays much more than the constant rehashing of the same pop sound that has been going for years now.

[BigAl35540]

You at the NAB may be partially responsible for this: IN RADIO THE FOCUS HAS BECOME "ADVERTISING" AND NOT THE "FORMAT" ANYMORE!! I don't give a damn about they're "hawking", I don't need any of that stuff anyway! I'm interested in what they are playing! In most cases now that is "crap" by wanna be musicians who have no talent whatsoever! So I have "turned off" broadcast radio and am never coming back. I know what I like in music and I know EXACTLY which websites have what I want to hear! It's all music you don't hear on uncreative American radio! It's obvious you don't listen to REAL Internet radio otherwise you wouldn't have said what you said!

[ralfthedog]

What about bands that are not members of SoundExchange? Does SoundExchange charge for non SoundExchange bands? I have heard that an independent band that set up an internet radio station to only play their own songs would be charged. Is that true? Is this legal?

The last time I checked, SoundExchange was not the government.

[PixP]

RIAA is only settling with the ridiculous plan because it gives them more leverage when they go after over the air stations. They want to charge us for sound. What's next? They want to charge us for the air we breath, and what we smell?

[magicmaster]

If I never have chance to hear them, how do I suppose to them at all?

My internet radio station, MGZC Radio (www.live365.com/stations/mgzcm) will obviously be impacted. With our creed being the "other" music, we try to help the lesser-known artists in downtempo/lounge/electronic/dance get a break.

It seems that the RIAA has no intention of helping the artists since most of the collected royalty money goes to the record companies and publishers who control most of the rights the artists have. The NAB should pay as well as they do the same thing we do as far as broadcasting is concerned.

A lot of commercial over-the-air-stations are pre-programmed for the day, week, month, etc., so they are similar to most internet radio stations as far daily operations go.

Great country, though. If you have the $$$ and the foot soldiers you can get what you want. Otherwise, enjoy the crumbs.

[C0mmanderB0nd]

XM/Sirius's move to pass along the cost was the final straw for me so I cancelled my subscription as well. Oddly enough I got a survey wondering why I left shorly after, and from the tone of the questions and how specific they were, XM is well aware of these tactics driving away customers.

As they specifically asked in reason for leaving if paying extra for online, best of, and increasing royalties were factors in my cancelling.

Of course with as desperate as they are for money I don't expect them to change, or be around in a few years for that matter.

As for radio I find it more annoying when compared to the ease of shuffling through my music library I compiled legally by ripping my 100's of previously purchased CD's. So suck it RIAA, I have already paid you enough..... Keep your popcrap radio feeding the insanity of drugged up marginally talented **********.

[FreddieT]

So stupid of NBA to consider Webcasters competitors instead of comrades. They should team up and fight the music industry so they will both be treated better instead of pursuing their own short-sighted benefit. Shame on NBA!

[phunkysmell]

FYI, this deal sets a MINIMUM $25,000 charge no matter what your revenues, so this completely outlaws the hobby station. It may be good for big sites like Pandora, but 95% of Shoutcast stations, etc. will be illegal or be gone.

[Thozman]

I don't see the difference in sitting at your home and playing your newest CD for a room full of friends, and/or using a device such as hobby internet radio to do the same.
As far a pirating goes, when one of my buds bought a cassette or CD, if any of us wanted a copy it was passed around for anyone who wanted it to copy or record.

It was just what good friends did.
Soon the RIAA will be suing people for playing their CD's within earshot range of others.

[BigAl35540]

When that happens, it will be time to rise up and DESTROY the RIAA and SoundExchange by any means possible! That would mean full blown unadulterated war against them! I would not accept victory until until both were totally destroyed and unable to function! As far as I am concerned the RIAA, SoundExchange and the NAB are PUBLIC ENEMIIES NUMBER 1. They have one and only one motivation, PERSONAL GREED! It's time to say NO to the RIAA, SoundExchange and the NAB. They have become a liability and not an asset in the music industry! It's one of the reasons that the United States of America's music industry shovels out crap by untalented wanna be musician's! Until these entities are FORCED to change their way, this is all will ever get and the Internet MUST REMAIN the alternative to this AT ALL COSTS!

[BigAl35540]

Live365 & Pandora? These sites simply put are LAME!!! Real internet radio is stations like Groove Salad, [SOMA-FM], Bluemars, Bluemars, Mixing of Particulate Solids 1-3, BUZZOUTROOM, These are in my favorite types of music, Ambient, Downtempo & Chill, but there are examples like it in almost any other music genre on the Internet. Just go on Shoutcast.com and you'll see what I mean! You don't need a PROPRIETARY PLAYER like at Live365 to play them! These MP3U and AAC+ streams all run fine in my Winamp media player which handles ALL of my music reproduction on the computer. I have my favorite stations bookmarked so I can switch easily between them. It's a pain-in-the-ass to change streams on Live365, one of the reasons I DROPPED them five years ago! ALL of the sites I can tune in to on my Winamp player have NO COMMERCIAL ADVERTISING and no fees necessary to be paid to listen to a reasonably good quality stream, (sorry Live365!). They all "narrowcast" but are very diversified within the music genre. The stream speeds of 128 Kbps and above also produce near compact disc audio quality so BOTH of my computers are connected directly to main audio systems with high quality floor speakers that blow away that dinky small stuff designed for computer reproduction. It is then that you can truly appreciate the quality of audio these sites transmit! Particularly if you decode the stream to a 24-bit sound field instead of a 16-bit! That's UNMATCHED by the proprietary players of these two big websites. Live365 outputs at 1/2 compact disc sampling rate and the loss of definition is striking compared to internal players like Winamp! CONSEQUENTLY,THESE SMALL INDEPENDENT SITES SPREAD ALL OVER THE WORLD ARE WHAT I AND MANY OTHERS WISH TO PROTECT!! Not Live365 and Pandora! Right now because broadcast radio is totally wireless, they still have an advantage, but once the Internet becomes wireless and available anywhere, broadcast radio's days are pretty much done! Right now whenever I get access to a wireless network on my laptop, my favorite sites are all there available to me! SoundExchange had better get used to this type of Internet Radio, because it's what's happening and the trend, not Live365 and Pandora! I've noticed on the Internet that "big" companies are frequently non competitive because they can't THINK CREATIVELY and that makes all the difference in the world on the Internet! Such is the case with both Live365 and Pandora, both of which could disappear tomorrow and wouldn't cause me the slightest concern at all! I would highly suggest that you listen to REAL Internet Radio before writing anymore articles on this subject and also get the idea out of your head that a "big" company is better than a "small" one because on the Internet they're DEFINITELY NOT! By the way It's been OVER 3-YEARS since I listened to a broadcast radio station! The focus is on ADVERTISING and not the supposed "FORMAT"! As far as I am concerned, broadcast radio died when the 1970's radio revolution passed away. I am on the Internet now and not coming back to broadcast radio ever again! My FM tuner just sits there now!