Sunday, March 04, 2007

Call To Action!


My FAVORITE internet radio station is being affected by this: PLease read, and if you can do anything, please do....


Help Keep Internet Radio Online

Whats Happening

On Friday March 2nd 2007, the Copyright Royalty Board announced new
royalty rates for Internet Radio stations. The rates are retroactive to
January of 2006.

The new rates are far higher than any industry experts expected. In
fact, if they remain unchanged, bankruptcy looms for many online radio
stations.

The new rates essentially levy a tax of $0.0011 per performance. Now,
that doesn't sound bad does it. But consider this. Each hour, the
average radio station plays 16 songs. So that's about 1.76c per hour,
per listener. A station with 500 listener average would be hit with fees
of $211 per day, $6,336 a month or $76,000 a year.

This amount of money is beyond the resources of all but the very
wealthiest of corporations. Many of the internet radio stations are run
by enthusiasts and hobbyists. These small stations are the ones bringing
new music, and old favorites to you every day. Music you can't hear on
corporate-owned terrestrial stations.

Could this be the day the music died?



What can you do

If you enjoy internet radio, you need to make your feelings known right
now to your representatives in the Congress and Senate. Write to them
and ask them to help repeal the decision of March 2nd by the Copyright
Royalty Board. It only takes a couple of minutes.

Congress: http://www.house.gov/writerep/
Senate: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

More background on this decision

http://www.digmedia.org/docs/Press%20Release%2010-31-05.pdf
http://www.digmedia.org/docs/CRB%20Arbitration%20FAQ.pdf
http://www.kurthanson.com/archive/news/030207/index.shtml
Broadcastlawblog http://www.savenetradio.org/archive.htm

Broadcasters Go Here and join the cause http://webcastersunite.net

If you have a blog, write about it.....

That is all...

Oh, Yeah... I went to see KANSAS last night... I will blog on that, when I get my pictures developed..
Have a great day..!

3 comments:

Angela said...

Wow! That stinks! I'll send an email via the links to help.

Bare said...

I honestly didn't realize how much it cost! I will definitely be writing to these sources! Thanks so much for letting us know about this!

PS: I can't wait to see the pics from the Kansas concert! *hugs*

Mermaid Melanie said...

Thanks for putting this out there. I plan to do it as well later in the week.

can't wait to hear about the concert! :hug: