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 BY
KURT HANSON
The U.S. Copyright Office decision that could virtually shut
down the Internet radio industry is now just four
weeks away — and I believe it's time for webcasters
to take their grassroots campaign to prevent that outcome to the
next level.
This grassroots effort is, in my opinion, in the best interests
of, and should be supported by, (1)
forward-looking broadcasters who are streaming their
broadcast programming (to both listeners in office buildings in
their market and to listeners around the world), (2)
Internet-only webcasters (both large and small —
from AOL's Jimmy de Castro to the kid programming a Live365 station
in his dorm room), and even by (3) record
company executives who realize that the RIAA's efforts
may have been too successful for their member labels' own
good. (Many record company execs realize that a thriving
Internet radio industry offers fantastic exposure for dozens of
genres of music and thousands of artists who don't get AM and FM
airplay!)
As such, I would like to suggest we now turn our efforts
up a notch -- specifically, by coordinating a MEDIA
EVENT that would generate a new round of press coverage
and, ideally, would focus the efforts of webcasters and listeners
on one final pass at Congress and, indirectly, the Copyright Office.
 History
points the way?
At Chris Popp's ConXis event,
iM Networks President/CTO
Dave Frerichs (right) gave
a keynote address in which he quoted from a fascinating website
about the history of the early days of broadcast radio (here).
Since then, CyberRadio2000's
Sal Lepore has also been urging me to look at historical precedents.
From the website Dave pointed me to, here is an interesting
factoid about how West Coast broadcasters galvanized public opinion
in 1927, when the government was refusing to adequately regulate
stations' frequency assignments:
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"New York and Chicago
were worst hit by
the increase in stations and congestion, but the effects were
felt nationwide, especially with an increase in nighttime
heterodynes.
"In the West, one group of stations staged a novel
demonstration in support of the restoration of government
controls. According to the June, 1927 Radio Broadcast, 'Between
the hours of eight and nine February 11, KFI, and ten other
Pacific Coast stations presented what they termed an Interference
Hour. The stations were paired off and so changed
their wavelengths as to interfere seriously with one another.
After an hour of squeals, howls, indistinguishable announcements,
and distorted music, the stipulated wavelengths were resumed,
following which pleas were made from each of the stations
in support of the radio bill before the senate.'
"Congress reconvened in December,
and work slowly began on the radio crisis... With the
chaos radio sales had declined, and there was a sense that
radio was being wasted. The whole
country was watching."
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That's exactly what we need: The whole country to be watching!
And something like the "Interference Hour" approach seems
like a great way to make that happen
Proposal: Send out a "Mayday!"
on May 1st
Therefore, I'd like propose that webcasters send out a distress
call ("Mayday!" Mayday!") via a
"Day of Silence" onWednesday, May 1st —
combined with a request to our listeners to use the silent time
on that day to write their Congressional
representatives, local newspapers, and favorite journalists about
their concerns.
Why do I recommend this approach as opposed to other less-dramatic
actions like more  banners
and PSAs? Because a "Day of Silence" is a news
story. Some webcasters are already running a PSA voiced
by IM Networks's Mary McCann
that contains a 10-second moment of silence. It's dramatic and effective,
and I really like it, but it's not a news story.
In addition, we know that many members of Congress are still
not familiar enough with this situation, time is running out, and
webcasters need more people to contact their Congressmen's offices
about this. As RAIN's Paul Maloney, an admitted procrastinator,
has pointed out, that the best way to get something done is to set
a specific day for the task, and do
it.
(CONTINUED BELOW)
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(FROM ABOVE)
Participation could take several
forms
Participation in a national "Day of Silence" could
take any of several forms: Rather than broadcasting dead air, which
might be perceived by listeners as simply a technical glitch, webcasters
might simply remove all links to their streams on
their home page that day, with an explanation of the reason why
("We are silent today because...") and links to SaveInternetRadio.org
or Lightningcast's
fax server or to the webcaster's Congressional representatives'
offices or wherever.
Other webcasters might prefer to run periods of silence within
each hour of programming — or periods of silence interspersed
with PSAs on the subject.
 Webcasters
including Radioio's
Mike Roe, Beethoven.com's
Kevin Shively, 3WK's Jim
& Wanda Atkinson, Ultimate-80s's
Dave Landis, Radio Paradise's
Bill Goldsmith, and Live365's
John Jeffries have been successful at generating lots of Congressional
support already. However, this his press event, if executed successfully,
might, I think, help redouble their efforts.
Advertising commitments could
be manageable
For those webcasters who have advertising commitments to fulfill,
let me suggest that your total TTSL for the week might be just as
high under this plan as otherwise: If you typically stream 10,000
hours of programming per day, it's true you might lose one day's
worth of hours of listening, but I think you might see some days
of 12,000 to 15,000 hours later in the week as a result of the press
coverage this event might generate.
We're willing to devote an entire issue of RAIN, plus
redesign the relevant information on Save
Internet Radio.org, for this. We'd also be happy to "work
the phones" for a day should webcasters or listeners need more
assistance. (We'll put together a team of interns to provide live
customer support!) RAIN would provide an exhaustive as possible
guide of what exactly webcasters can do and whom to contact. We
would also feature new sample letters written by concerned citizens
that we think are excellent models for people to use.
Sample ideal news story
Here's an example of the kind of press coverage that I believe
this event could generate:
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WEBCASTERS
CRY
'MAYDAY! MAYDAY!'
By SAVVY JOURNALIST on 4/30/02
Hundreds of Internet radio stations
across America -- and other sympathetic webcasters around
the world -- are shutting their music streams tomorrow (5/1/02)
to highlight their concern over an upcoming US Copyright Office
ruling on royalty rates that may shut down or bankrupt the
vast majority of the nascent Internet radio industry.
The Copyright Office is required by law to set "sound
recordings performance royalty" rates for Internet radio
stations by May 21st, and an arbitration panel (a "CARP")
working for that office has recommended a rate of $.0014 per
listener per song, which many webcasters say is the equivalent
of 200% or more of their revenues.
"By crying 'Mayday!' tomorrow, we're hoping that
our listeners will take the time to contact their representatives
in Washington and ask them to express their concerns to the
Copyright Office," said __________, who runs an Internet
radio station at www.____.com. "The purpose of a statutory
royalty rate was supposed to be to encourage
the growth and diversity of the industry, not to kill it."
Webcasters are planning tomorrow's
"Day of Silence" to begin at dawn in their time
zone and end in late evening. Some webcasters plan to go entirely
dark, while others plan to replace their music streams with
the sound of crickets chirping or periods of silence interspersed
with public service announcements on the subject.
Internet
radio is wonderful, but endangered
Currently, there are over 50,000 webcasters streaming
a wide variety of musical genres -- including bluegrass, electronica,
folk, heavy metal, '50s oldies, classical, blues, Hawaiian
music, traditional jazz, trance, Americana, Broadway, and
dozens of other styles of music and thousands of musical artists
that don't get airplay on the AM and FM bands.
In addition, thousands of broadcast radio stations
around the world stream their audio on the web, allowing their
listeners to listen to their favorite station even if they're
in an office building with bad reception or have moved to
another city. (This "simulcast" streaming also allows
listeners in Whitehall, WI, to hear the jazz programming of
WNYC/New York City and listeners in New York City to hear
the bluegrass music of a station in a small market in TN.)
However, most webcasters believe that if the CARP's
recommendation is approved, perhaps only a half-dozen deep-pocketed
corporations, if that many, will be able to afford to continue
streaming. (Webcasters who have been streaming for several
years would be bankrupted by retroactive liabilities.)
Webcasters asking listeners to write Congress
Tomorrow, Webcasters will ask their listeners to call
and fax the legislative aide for the Internet in their Congressman's
office in Washington, DC. They have set up a website at www.SaveInternetRadio.org
with links to Congressional offices, to a automatic faxing
service provided by Lightningcast, and to the websites of
the Digital Media Association (DiMA) and the International
Webcasters Association (IWA).
"A lot of us don't relish the
idea of going silent for a whole day," said __________,
who runs an Internet radio station at www.____.com. "But
if the CARP recommendation is accepted, then on May 22nd most
of us probably be going silent permanently."
"Webcasters participating in the "Day of
Silence" include _________.com, ______ Broadcasting,
_________.com, ________ Broadcasting, _________.com, and others.
(See the accompanying sidebar for this publication's list
of recommendations of great Internet radio stations.)
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I also believe that such an event could help generate more
actual editorials in support of modification of the CARP
ruling, such as the excellent piece on the editorial page of the
San Jose Mercury News last week ("Without Congress'
help, Internet radio will wither. Royalty payment per song is unreasonable"
here).
What do you think?
Does this proposal make sense? If you're a webcaster, would
you get behind if if others would as well?
...
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...
If I was the RIAA's Hilary Rosen, I think that I would
be considering throwing my support behind a modification (downward!)
of the CARP recommendation.
Here's why: Imagine that the Librarian of Congress
accepts the CARP recommendation on May 21st and sets a $.0014/
performance royalty rate ($.0007/performance for broadcast simulcasts)
retroactive to October, 1998, and effective immediately.
What will happen? First, every small independent webcaster
will go bankrupt (or move offshore). In addition, several major
broadcasters will pull down their Web simulcasts again, as they
did after the AFTRA crisis but this time perhaps permanently.
The number of voices in Internet radio will collapse from tens
of thousands to a mere handful (Yahoo!, Spinner, etc.).
What will happen next? That decimation of the Internet
radio industry will lead to a round of  bad
press, once again casting the record industry (as personified
by the RIAA) in the role of the enemy of the music consumer
— including those consumers who are trying to be 100% law-abiding!
What will happen after that? The San Jose Mercury News editorial
says it best: "If the Patent Office doesn't slash the royalty,
Congress should consider rescinding
it."
In other words, the RIAA may win the battle but lose
the war: By winning a royalty rate so high that it drives most
webcasters off the air, the RIAA may see an unintended
consequence in which the DMCA is revised and they
lose their sound recording performance royalty entirely.
-- KH
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So
what should Hilary do?
If I was representing the RIAA, here's what I would do:
I'd take the high road, get some quality PR value, and head
off that possible chain of events.
I'd offer to accept a royalty rate somewhere in the range
of composers' royalties (i.e., somewhat higher than 3% of revenues,
but not grossly so), expressed as either a flat rate per performance
(for webcasters like AOL who will have a hard time defining
webcast-related revenues) or as a percentage of revenues.
And I'd look like to a hero to copyright-respecting music
lovers throughout the world!
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| Have an opinion on the topic of what
the RIAA should do? Use the feedback form above, or send an e-mail
to feedback@kurthanson.com. |
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The Washington Post's Newsbytes.com site has
posted a short piece called "CARP Killers," in which it
mildly backs webcasters' efforts in the current copyright royalty
and recordkeeping situation. The piece also directs readers
to our SaveInternetRadio.org
site.
"The royalty scheme, proposed by the Copyright Arbitration
Royalty Panel (CARP)," reads the piece, "could come with
the double whammy of an intensive, expensive record keeping system
that the Copyright Office has proposed that would require Webcasters
to provide copyright holders with information ranging from the genre
of music played to just about anything about listeners, short of
their mothers' maiden names."
The Newsbytes article also illustrates SaveInternetRadio.org's
attempts to bring attention to the crisis in the webcasting industry,
and criticism of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
See the Newsbytes article here.
From USA Today: "With hardware smaller than
a toaster that tucks away in the trunk, PhatBox
[right] can store, access and
catalog thousands of digital music files. These MP3s can be played
and scanned using a compatible in-dashboard car stereo.
"The PhatBox is branded as the Music
Keg [pictured below] by Kenwood and is now sold only through
authorized Kenwood dealers, at a list price of $900...
"The PhatBox proper is really four components: a 10-gigabyte
hard drive to store the digital music files, a desktop cradle to
transfer music from the computer to the hard drive, another docking
unit for the car trunk and
audio managing software for the PC. (The system is not compatible
with Apple operating systems.)...
"The PhatBox unit is a wonderful drive-time solution
for fans of MP3 and other emerging digital audio technologies. The
sound quality of the MP3s through the Kenwood stereo was pristine
and, cover your ears audiophiles, indistinguishable from my conventional
CDs.
"The one thing to look out for with technology like
PhatBox is the recording industry's plan for CDs that copy-protect
new songs, which could mean trouble for PhatBox and other MP3-dependent
devices.
"The five major record labels are working to bring their
CDs of the future to store shelves in un-rippable formats. Some
of these CDs won't even play in your computer, let alone permit
you to make copies and take them on the road."
Read the entire review in USA Today here.
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| Apr. 23-26, 2002 |
Streaming
Media West 2002: Los Angeles, CA |
| Apr. 25-26, 2002 |
Beyond
the DMCA: A Copyright Conference: Washington, DC |
| July 25-28, 2002 |
The
Conclave 2002 Learning Conference: Minneapolis, MN |
| Sept. 12-14,
2002 |
NAB
Radio Show 2002: Seattle, WA |
| October 1-4,
2002 |
Streaming
Media East: New York, NY |
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