From Bill Goldsmith's blog Save Our Internet Radio: "I’m Bill Goldsmith, and my wife Rebecca and I have spent the last seven years of our lives pouring our hearts, minds, and financial resources into Radio Paradise. We are now faced with the very real possibility that all of our efforts will have been in vain, and  that the thousands of people who are devoted listeners to our station will have it snatched out of their lives...

"The Internet has changed radio in a profound way. Instead of a business that required investments so huge (millions of dollars for even a small-market FM station) that a programming focus on the lowest common denominator and an extreme aversion to risk or experimentation was an unavoidable consequence, a radio station with a global reach was now within the grasp of anyone with the talent and determination to make it happen.

"Every day we hear from listeners who are profoundly touched by our efforts — by the music we play, by the way we assemble the songs into meaningful sequences that are more than the sum of their parts, by our passion for what we are doing, and our commitment to never contaminating the music with advertising. And our station is but one of many who have attracted that kind of passionate following, and provided that kind of outlet for radio artists like myself.

"The Internet’s paradigm-shifting gift to radio programmers and music lovers — at least those in the US — is now in danger of being taken away by the misguided actions of the US Copyright Board. The performance royalty rates released by the Copyright Board on March 1, 2007 are not just extreme, not just burdensome. They are a death sentence for all US-based independent webcasters like Radio Paradise, SOMA-FM, Digitally Imported, and many others...

Read more at the Save Our Internet Radio blog.

sick and tired of always seeing the RIAA pulling deplorable moves

"First off, we want to be clear that this battle won't be over on March 31st. We declared March the Boycott the RIAA month to draw a line in the sand and to make a strong statement, but this is merely the beginning. Everything we're going to lay out here will still be true in April, in May, in June, and in the months that follow. March will be not the entirety of our efforts, but rather a kick off of our organized campaign to make a difference.

"We'll be posting tips for how to get the word out, ways to  support artists without supporting the RIAA, and keeping you updated witheverything that's going on throughout the entire month. With your help, we can educate people about how important this issue is and really make a difference..."

Read the entire article at Gizmodo.



From Slashdot: "Kurt Hanson's Radio [and] Internet Newsletter has an analysis of the new royalty rates for Internet Radio announced by the US Copyright Office. The decision is likely to put most internet radio stations out of business by making the cost of broadcasting much higher than revenues.

From the article: 'The Copyright Royalty Board is rejecting all of the arguments made by Webcasters and instead adopting the "per play" rate proposal put forth by SoundExchange (a digital music fee collection body created by the RIAA)...[The] math suggests that the royalty rate decision — for the performance alone, not even including composers' royalties! — is in the in the ballpark of 100% or more of total revenues.'"

Read the entire article at Slashdot.



From Wired's Listening Post blog: "On Friday, which is generally accepted in public relations circles as the best day of the week to release controversial news, the United States Copyright Royalty Board announced new royalty rates  for webcasts, effective from 2006 to 2010.

"The board ignored the arguments of the International Webcasting Association and other webcasters, and apparently simply endorsed the proposal of the RIAA-associated SoundExchange royalty organization, which represents the major and some indie labels."

Read the entire article at the Listening Post blog.

Links to previous royalty rate coverage in RAIN:

Feb. 20, 2002
CARP rec.'s .07-cent fee for radio webcasts, twice that for 'Net only

Feb. 21, 2002
Industry reacts to CARP royalty rates for Internet broadcasts

Feb. 25, 2002
Industry still stunned by CARP arbitrators' recommendation

Feb. 27, 2002
CARP arbitrators gave RIAA more than they asked for!

April 18, 2002
Mercury News editorial

April 22, 2002
Day of Silence announced

April 23, 2002
More support in Congress

April 25, 2002
Day of Silence is ON!

April 29, 2002
DOS in USA Today, NY Post

May 1, 2002
Day of Silence

June 20, 2002
Librarian Decision

June 24, 2002
Cuban on Yahoo deal