Internet Radio Day of Silence

headless_ringmaster writes "TechTV's ScreenSavers today aired their interview with Wolf FM's Steve Wolf on the CARP bill and how it'll destroy Internet Radio. The Internet Radio Day of Silence is a day of protest for Internet Radio stations to get the word out on the issue. This has been talked about on /. before, but it's very nice to see a significant television/media company like TechTV use their broadcasting advantage to help the little guys, especially when they're up against monied interests." May 1 is Labor Day throughout most of the world except the U.S.; a good choice for internet radio stations to try to get out their message.

Pertinent Info

[gvonk]

Basically, it's good to see mainstream coverage for this story.

Net Radio Fears Heard in Congress [yahoo.com]
Yahoo writeup showing that we just might make a difference.

USAToday Coverage!!! Suave!!! [usatoday.com]

Most importantly, A sample letter [somafm.com] to your congressman.

Of course, all courtesy of SOMAFM, my favorite internet radio group. [somafm.com]

My fave is Groove Salad [somafm.com] (128k pls feed)

Re:Err

[Vinnster]

Me tuning in: Ethel, Where'd I put that darned hearing aid? I can't quite tell what they're all saying... The message seems a bit quiet....
20 out of every 1 person in the world are dyslexic

Re:Err

[Jonathunder]

I know you're being funny--and thought it was incongruous as well.

But according to the article "Some webcasters plan to go entirely silent, while others plan to replace their music streams with periods of silence interspersed with public service announcements on the subject. (Some webcasters also plan to broadcast or direct listeners to an all-day talk show on the issues produced by WOLF FM's Steve Wolf.)"

Re:Hmm

[martissimo]

Normal radio stations aren't charged per listener, simply because you can't count listeners. I'm not sure about fancy satellite radio and stuff like that, though.

incorrect. taken from this article (and many others if you Google a bit) [businessweek.com]

Goldsmith's dream could be short-lived, however. On Feb. 20, the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP), a body appointed by the U.S. Copyright Office, ruled that under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), Internet radio stations must pay the record labels a fee of 0.14 cents per song, per listener. Traditional radio stations would pay 0.07 cents per song, per listener

they do pay fees, just half that of whats being asked of internet radio

Save Internet Radio

[geekgreg]

Save Internet Radio [saveinternetradio.org] is a great website, there's lots of information on the bills that are threatening internet radio, and what you can do to help stop them from passing legislation.

Then why don't Radio stations pay the fee?

[ouija147]

That is the problem with this proposal. AM or FM only Radio stations don't pay this fee.

AM or FM Radio stations that also simulcast on the Internet will pay 0.07 cents per song per listener.

Internet only radio pays twice that fee.

That may not sound like much but do the math. Wolffm will owe $500,000 as soon as this goes into effect. The rate is retroactive.

Netradio liquidated as soon as they heard about this proposal.

This was pushed by the big companies trying to make sure you hear the music in which they have an investment.

WHRW, Binghamton

[mstyne]

As General Manager of a small college radio station [whrwfm.org], here in Binghamton, NY I know a lot of people outside of our listening area depend on our RealAudio feed to get alternative news, music, and opinions. While it might piss them off that we're participating in the Internet Radio Day of Silence, it might make them angry enough to get involved. We have cut our feed and will be running Public Service Announcements on the air to get the word out. It's unfortunate that if CARP's decision goes through, we'll have to pull our Internet Feed. Small stations like ours (broadcast or just Internet) can't afford the high royalties. We already pay ASCAP and BMI, shouldn't that be enough!?

[shameless plug]
Don't let that stop you from tuning in *after* May 1st though!!
[/shameless plug]

SomaFM

[saveth]

It's May 1. And, SomaFM [somafm.com] is still broadcasting.

I don't know if they're supporting the Day of Silence, but every 30 minutes, a short advertisement comes on the air. It always says something to effect of "The RIAA is trying to exercise its control over internet radio. Stop them before you can't hear your favourite artists, again." And, the ad is right. Forcing fees on already underfunded radio stations is terrible for the future of music.

Some of the lesser-known ambient music artists, for example, *ONLY* have their music played on SomaFM. What happens when SomaFM can't afford to keep their station anymore? I call it a tragedy. Call it whatever you want. Either way, it sucks. For us and for them.

Groove Salad. [somafm.com]

DNA Lounge silent. Damn the Man! Damn the Man!

[Jamie Zawinski]

I took the DNA Lounge webcast and archives [dnalounge.com] down for the day, as well as the audio portion of the video webcast. [dnalounge.com] Well actually I replaced it with a synthesized voice explaining why there's no music. If you run your own webcast, I hope you'll do something similar, to help shake the listeners into action.

I've written up an explanation [dnalounge.com] of how the webcasting rules currently work, and how they will work if the CARP crap goes through. The whole situation is fairly egregious, and shafts the small operator far more than it will affect the major corporations who are able to play in the same sandbox as the Big Five who control 90%+ of the global entertainment industry.

This is all about legislating the internet out of existence, to preserve their previous and now-obsolete business model.

Under the new rules, if a webcast had only a single listener -- the webcaster -- he would be expected to pay $184/year for streaming music to himself!

Open source music

[jonasndiku.dk]

What is the problem ? Why do slashdot users keep promoting commercial music and ignoring the free multimedia scene (scene.org) :-) ? Try scenemusic.net which has a playlist of 9095 free mp3s. You can actually download the source code to most of the music (.mod, .xm etc.). Commercial netradios could also learn from it's advanced request and comment system.

Re:Silly idea

[Anonymous Coward]

Most of them ARE doing just that. Not airing silence, but a "spoken word" statement and info about the cause.

/ScumBag

Re:Silly idea

[Greg Hewgill]

Believe it or not, some webcasters were actually smart enough to do that! Radio Paradise [radioparadise.com], at least, has a bit that loops every few minutes explaining what's going on and how to help. Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

It is .14 cents or 0.07 cents

[ouija147]

Plus you forgot to multiply per listener.

So take that fee times the number of active streams. Then you get the correct number.

It really is hundredths (sp?) of a cent. Those fractions of a penny add up fast if you are streaming to hundreds of listeners.

That is just one of the reasons why this is so unfair and doomed to kill internet radio.

KCRW Santa Monica is observing the silence.

[nyet]

KCRW [kcrw.org] is observing the silence, which should be VERY good publicity, since they are a VERY big market in LA (for a public radio station) and get pretty good ratings during drive time hours.

Here's [kcrw.com] the "To the Point" episode talking about it.