Carp-Free Independent Music Labels

robkill writes "The actions and intentions of the RIAA have been under close scrutiny in the folk music community as well as Slashdot. In addition to Janis Ian's article previously featured here on Slashdot, guitarist Harvey Reid has an article on the importance of internet radio for the independent music community. Besides posting a number of good links, he has started a signup webpage for independent artists and music labels who are interested in circumventing the CARP fee. Right now, it's only a mailing list for Artists and Record Labels who want to see internet radio succeed. So if you own the copyrights on some independent music, why not join the list? For the rest of us, it's a good list of musicians to support."

Glad Somebody's finally doing it..

[billatq]

Quite Frankly, the RIAA's business practices make me sick. It seems that they try to make money off of everything that we listen to, while squelching the alternatives that we might listen to through another medium. They seem to want to copy-protect everything, throw fair use out the window, and then charge everyone royalties for what amounts to them as free promotion. I hope more artists sign up for this.

Re:Glad Somebody's finally doing it..

[pheared]

It's called, "Being a business in a capitalist world." If you want businesses to look out for Jon Q. Consumer's interests, to take care of his well-being, and to make sure he gets enough food each week, form a Socialist community. Until then, don't be surprised when you find out that every GM of the world is only concerned with how much money they can get from you.

Riaa Rep too answer questions on zeropaid.com

[Ender77]

From Zeropaid.com webside:

Got a Question for Hilary?

A representative of the RIAA has agreed to take some time out of their hectic court schedule and answer a few of our questions. Don't miss out on a chance to voice your opinion!

Re:Can anyone recommend some internet radio statio

[FatRatBastard]

I broadcast on live365 [slashdot.org] (a damn good service I must say) but even those poor buggers have gotten the shaft by CARP. Their solution has been to levy a $5 monthly fee across the entire live365 lineup. I must say I can't blame them, they're trying to spread the hurt around as evenly as possible, but it does mean that you can't run a CARP free feed thru them without handing money over to the RIAA.

I fear that this is what the RIAA wanted. Personally, I think CARP blows, but if the RIAA want to shoot themselves in the foot by all means they should be able to. But it looks like they'll be able to essentially shoot down any big time non-CARP radio feeds by simply being the 800lb gorilla in the music biz.

Who (in terms of a large, easy to use broadcaster like live365) are going to run the risk of not paying CARP fees for everything and run the risk of the RIAA coming down on them like a tonne of brinks is a CARP free stream broadcasts a CARP covered song by accident?

support?

[SirRichardPumpaloaf]

I think I'll support musicians who make music that I like, even if their politics aren't always in lockstep with Slashdot. Is that okay?

Sounds good, but ...

[Anonymous Coward]

I got turned off radio and most commercial music as much as 15 ago. I am a big fan of independent music as an alternative to the god-awful crap that the "music" industry has been force-feeding the general public for so many years. In the last few years the Internet has become a vehicle for me to find good independent artists (mostly via promotional sites like IUMA [iuma.com], etc., and the artists' own web sites) that I would never have found by conventional means. This has allowed me to rediscover some of the pleasure of good music. So, I would love to see Internet broadcasters pay far more attention to independent artists and build an alternative system (some of you may remember alternative radio before it was commoditized), where quality of content, not corporate dollars and monopolization, dictate what is played.

Having said that, I am very troubled by the following possible scenario:

What's to stop the RIAA Cartel, Clear-Channel and its ilk from sitting by quietly and letting others experiment, invent and grow a system and then, if it starts to take off, using their billions to buy/muscle their way in and take over? That is, use a very effective part of the Microsoft R&D model - let some one else spend the money to invent and innovate and then buy them/take them over or stomp them out of existence. Then we end up with the same mess or a worse mess than radio is in today on another medium. And, since (I believe that) Internet broadcasting is essentially an unregulated medium, it is probably ripe for widespread payola and other abuses.

Doubt you're alone

[martissimo]

I mean, you can read endless boycott the MPAA rants here on a regular basis, yet when Star Wars, Spidey, LOTR, etc come out you can also read these same people's takes on the plot twists, and how good they are.

I'm sure there are a few hardcore people who stand behind the principle of thoose boycotts they propose... but even here where most people are far more involved with their views about the **AA than is mainstream, i doubt a huge difference is actually made.

Personally i just do as you do, i saw SW-EP2 in the theatre, i have a pre-ordered copy of LOTR DVD at Amazon which will ship in August, same with the new Dave Matthews CD pre-order.

I despise the crazy bills that the **AA trys to get passed to inhibit our abilities to use a computer as we see fit, yet I still purchase the rare bits of appealing (too me, at least if you just wanna reply to criticize my tastes thats fine, but frankly i may think the same about your taste if so) stuff they put out.

And I know i'm not alone, when there is something out there I want... I get it. I'm no Gandhi, I will not starve myself (so to speak) to make a point, guess i'm just weak, but so be it.