Zoë Keating is an interesting and very talented artist (hear some of her music here) who's educated herself on the history of royalties and Internet radio. And she's thought a lot about the Internet Radio Fairness Act.
Her conclusions: (A) Even more than the money, she's interested in data -- information about the plays she's getting on streaming services that will help her grow her business; and (B) She thinks the best solution to royalties would be a single, same-across-the-board royalty for Internet radio, satellite radio, and broadcast.
"I want my data and in 2012 I see absolutely no reason why I shouldn’t own it," she posted to her blog. In fact, she'd rather be paid her royalty in data than money.
Keating explains that if she knew more about the context in which her music is heard ("Do these listeners also own my music? How many of these listens are on Zoë Keating stations? What other user stations do I pop up in, and sandwiched between what other artists? How many listeners gave me a 'thumbs up'?"), she could leverage that information to fine-tune her marketing efforts ("How do I reach them? Do they know I’m performing nearby next month? How can I tell them I have a new album coming out?").
"The new model says that in the future I’m not supposed to sell music: I’m supposed to sell concert tickets and tshirts. OK fine, so put me in touch with the people who will buy concert tickets and tshirts."
Her solution to the current royalty standoff is to simply give all forms of radio (including AM/FM) the same royalty rate ("One Royalty Rate to Rule Them All," in her words).
By the way, you can see Keating's Internet royalty earnings for 2011 and 2012 online here. Her blog entry is here.
We're happy to announce our second-annual RAIN Summit Europe industry event, May 23 in gorgeous Brussels, Belgium. We'll gather with Internet radio leaders from across Europe and around the world at the Hotel Bloom for a full day of informative panels, presentations and networking.
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