More Buffoonery From The Music Industry
A panel of judges at the Copyright Royalty Board has denied a request from the NPR and a number of other webcasters to reconsider a March ruling that would force Internet radio services to pay crippling royalties. The panel’s ruling reaffirmed the original CRB decision in every respect, with the exception of how the royalties will be calculated. Instead of charging a royalty for each time a song is heard by a listener online, Internet broadcasters will be able pay royalties based on average listening hours through the end of 2008.
Why does the music industry insist on treating the consumer like an enemy?
It doesn’t make sense to me and I don’t see how it can make sense to the artists. Many of these internet radio sites play tracks which otherwise would get no airtime on radio, which otherwise I would never have heard, and from artists which I would have never discovered. Zero 7, Air, Bebel Gilberto, Susumu Yokota, and on and on…
I know this isn’t the case for everyone, but at least in my case, internet radio has led to the purchase of almost all of my CDs in the last 4 years and these are albums which otherwise would have little mainstream exposure at all.
I just don’t get the logic that the music industry is operating on…
