Monday, March 19, 2007

Royalty Board Stifling Innovation

I've started following the webcaster royalty issue over the past few days. I normally despise NPR but I hope they prevail in this case. It seems that SoundExchange and the RIAA through the Copyright Royalty Board are attempting to protect FM radio and quash the innovative services arising through the internet. They all seem to want to control access to consumers so that they can be spoon-feed the industry's chosen artists.

I strongly disagree with the mouth-piece of SoundExchange, which collects the royalties, that "we need to get over the idea that these webcasters are performing a favor for the artists (paraphrased)." On the contrary,the webcasters are indeed doing a favor to the artists. Pandora is performing a humongous favor for the artists and the record labels. I've heard songs on their that I went and purchased on Emusic.com. Songs I wouldn't have heard otherwise. I think that the artists should be thrilled for all the new venues for hearing music. Each one is a different way to connect to the consumers without which the labels wouldn't exist. The labels, SoundExchange, and the RIAA all make me want to burn a bunch of CDs from my local library in retribution!

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