From Jerry Del Colliano's "Inside Music Media" blog: "The 'Day of Silence' to attract attention to the unfair treatment of Internet streamers at the hands of the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) is over.

"Now, it's time to take off the gloves and hit SoundExchange where it hurts them the most — in Congress.

"[T]he 'Day of Silence'... succeeded to the extent that the protest brought the issue into a more general public discussion...

"SoundExchange, meanwhile, has given us a glimpse of their Achilles heel. They want to avoid getting Congress involved in this issue. It's their worst case scenario...

"While the recent protest was being planned SoundExchange made a lightning fast offer to cap streamer's administrative fee structure at $2,500 per organization with royalties still additional [previous RAIN coverage here]...

"SoundExchange, the group that collects the streamers royalty money, wants the administrative fee reduction in return for a signed agreement that proponents of lower rates would abandon their legislative efforts to protest royalties in the future. This fact was not immediately transparent when SoundExchange was spinning their offer to Internet radio and Congress...

"Now it's time to hit SoundExchange and the music industry they represent hard where they've indicated they don't want you to go — Congress... After all, it's Congress that helped cause the current dilemma in the first place. SoundExchange doesn't want that.

"From July 15th forward lobbying and pressuring Congress should not be one day, one month or a one year event. It should be an ongoing fight...

"If the Internet streaming business is worth fighting for — and it most certainly is the future — shrewd lobbying and grass roots, gloves-off political maneuvering is a requirement going forward...

"Now, to my friends in the Internet streaming business, get smart and make July 15th the 'Day of Reckoning' — the day SoundExchange and the labels will remember as the day when they went too far.

"Don't settle until Internet streamers receive fair and equal consideration in royalty fees.

"Don't settle until you win stability — not just measured in years without having to fight new rate hikes — but in increased influence that guarantees you'll pay your fair share and not a penny more."

Read the entire post at Inside Music Media.

From the op-ed section of the Baltimore Sun, by SONiA: "I've spent my entire career making music that transcends fear. In fact, the Baltimore-based band I started with my sister in 1994 is called 'disappear fear'.

"It might come as a surprise, then, that I'm writing now about something a lot of independent artists are scared about these days: the impending death of Internet radio.

"...For a lot of us, broadcast radio is mostly uncharted territory. We've come to rely on the Internet to get the word out, namely Internet radio, through which a lot of us have been able to find a modest fan base...

"Now we're at risk of losing it...

"While the royalty rate increases would mean certain bankruptcy for almost every Webcaster, the effect on indie artists would also be disastrous. Losing Internet radio would mean the loss of our biggest promotional resource.

"This becomes obvious when you look at the market. Right now, independent artists make up less than 10% of what's played on broadcast radio. On Internet radio, we make up about 37%.

"And as much I appreciate royalties as an artist, a bump in royalties means little to indie singer-songwriters if it also means the death of our biggest source of exposure. If Internet radio dies, there won't be any royalties to pay.

"The reality is, if our leaders in Congress allow these new royalty rates to go into effect — and it's within Congress' power to decide — it will make it much harder for independent artists like me to get off the ground to find their audience. What's worse for music lovers is that with such high fees, online radio will start to look a whole lot more like broadcast radio: a limited number of artists, a limited number of genres and a lot of bored music fans...

"Killing Internet radio would stifle this innovation just as it would stifle the indie labels and bands fighting to be heard, the Webcasters fighting to stay alive and the listeners just trying to find something new...

"For us, Internet radio has become essential. A world without it can only be described as scary."

Read the entire op-ed at the Baltimore Sun.

Advertisement