[NewMusic] Save Internet Radio

[J. Segel]

> Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 21:17:16 -0700
> From: Cypod <cypod25 at gmail.com>
> Subject: [NewMusic] Save Internet Radio
> To: "Bay Area New Music Discussion Group" <newmusic at music.mills.edu>
> Message-ID:
> 	<473c28030704302117k65752e7cgaaeb344154e3e2ed at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
> 
> Just when you thought that you were safe streaming your own music
> online, the RIAA comes along to tax you into silence:
> 
>        "What it also appears to mean is that Webcasters who have been
> following the assumed safe process of working directly with non-RIAA labels
> and artists may still have to pay royalties because its the duty of the
> SoundExchange to collect for all members and nonmembers."
> 
> -   http://dicta.fakescience.com/
> 
> 
> 
> If you don't want some third party to start taxing stations for playing your
> music; eventhough, you are not a member, then call your congressperson and
> ask them to co-sponsor H.R. 2060, The Internet Radio Equality Act.
> 
>  http://www.savenetradio.org/


as i wrote on myspace recently:

i've been following the upsurge of indignation at the new internet royalty rate
ruling with some interest, because i seem to be on both sides of it. i have in
the past made a somewhat meager living as a composer and performer, but have
seen that entirely go away in the past couple of years. i understand that
people want to listen to the radio, and in the past 20 years or so that i have
had songs that were played on the radio, i actually got paid broadcast
royalties (i'm talking college radio here, like maybe i made $1000 a year
maximum. i don't understand tim westergren from pandora's assertion that
broadcast radio doesn't pay these royalties at all...? http://blog.pandora.com/
) but with the advent of satellite radio, where they purposely didn't make
contracts with the performance rights groups for a couple years, they didn't
pay for a while. now they do. same with internet radio. the petitions i am
seeing are talking about the rates being raised 1000%, but we're talking 0.0008
cents per play as opposed to like 6 cents for broadcast radio, right? the
problem is per listener division as i understand it. it would seem like a
better way to do it would be a daily or weekly roundup of plays, but whatever,
i'm not a mathematician (that title goes to other members of my band.) 
take a look at the historical political economy of music (i recommend jaques
attali's book "noise") and lets talk about how musicians can survive in
society. everybody wants free music, in the past it had always been paid for by
patronage, then for a short period of time with the advent of media replication
(from printed score to cd) artists somewhat managed to be paid for their
composition as it was manufactured. we seem to be back to the patronage model,
composers are only paid for by patrons- advertisers, essentially. if you want
free music, that's what you'll get: advertisements for the patrons. 

the reality of patronage in the modern world is that most people will take what
they are given for free rather than pay for it themselves. hence, the patrons
will be advertisers. most music and bands will be paid for by placing their
music in ads, and the labels that draw the deals for "their" bands will take a
cut. essentially, any major label artist is a shill for advertising their
label, the whole of the band's existence serves to generate income for the
label, not to promote a continuance of art and human culture. watch any late
night TV talk show for a week and see the bands that are on it. who has placed
these bands there and why? how many of them are any good? count the number of
band tracks used in advertising for automobiles, banks, whatever. who has
placed these bands there? how many of them are independent? what about the
songs placed in hollywood films...? when a label or publisher gets a song
placed, the sync fees are large, it could entirely pay back an advance given to
the writers, hence they are very inclined to place songs that they have paid
publishing advances on. and of course, only those with big money can do any of
this. you are very lucky if you are independent and can get past the hurdles of
production to get a song placed in a film. to go one step further, notice how
many songs in films are covers, where the publishing is perhaps owned entirely
by someone other than the original writer (!) and the naive young band doing
the song gets "exposure". anyway. my point is that given a patronage situation,
most of the peasants end up listening to whatever the "king" commissions.

MAGNETIC --- Jonathan Segel 
magsatellite-yahoo(.)com <---> jsegel-magneticmotorworks(.)com
http://www.MagneticMotorworks.com

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