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| From | "Alan Haber" <zoogang@cox.net> |
| Subject | Re: the webcasters' Day of Silence tomorrow |
| Date | Tue, 26 Jun 2007 18:42:51 -0400 |
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Wow. Eytan, I'm surprised by your post. Really surprised. Talk about
self-serving--the section of the letter from the company that administers
your publishing conveniently leaves out the smaller mass of webcasters, and
only mentions the bigger fish. Seeing as how you hang out in the
comparitavely smaller pop community, populated by, among others, independent
musicians like yourself and extremely small webcasters who would benefit
from a different ruling, I would think you would see things differently.
I guess you've had trouble getting royalties from radio; well, that's
something you ought to take up with the licensing organizations. If you're
getting played on radio, you should be paid the royalties due to you. If
you're not getting them, it has nothing whatsoever to do with the current
state of webcasting.
It's hard enough to get airplay on radio these days. Many musicians have
publicly, and through letters to congressmen, said that enough of their fans
came to them through Internet radio play that it's in their interests to
back the Internet Radio Equality Act to bring the proposed royalties down to
a reasonable level for small webcasters like myself--small webcasters who
mostly lose money every month and will likely never come out ahead, or even
break even. I pay my royalties every month. It's my duty. And I think I
speak for most webcasters when I say that some increase may be in
order--just not an increase that would total in the end to more than 100
percent of any given webcaster's profits.
Some of us, like me, webcast simply to turn listeners on to music we love. I
lose money every month doing Pure Pop 24/7, and I have no problem doing
so...unless it gets out of hand as it will surely do if the CRB's proposed
increases take effect on July 15th.
Do you realize that Live365 will go out of business if the proposed royalty
rates aren't dismissed and renegotiated before July 15th? That's about 3,500
webcasters, small and large, webcasting through a company that cannot afford
to stay in business with the new royalties in place as they have been
proposed. A good number of those 3,500 stations play pop and power pop, by
the way. KCRW is non-commercial, by the way. Also, the statement in the
letter you quoted that the CRB ruling was properly appealed is only half the
story. The CRB chose to ignore everything presented to them from the
webcasters' side, and basically blindly winked at the RIAA as they passed
their ruling.
If the proposed royalty rates go through, most, if not all, Internet
webcasters will stop broadcasting by July 15. Is this really what you want?
The last statement in the letter from your publisher--"This is nothing more
than a blatant attempt by corporations to increase their piece
of the pie at your and our expens"--is blatantly ridiculous. Once again,
this isn't just about corporations--it's also about the kid in Dubuque
playing his favorite metal tunes through Live365. It's about the two-person
station in Albequerque. It's about all manner of webcasters, large and
small. Are you really looking to squeeze 100 percent+ out of some small
webcaster's profits (if he has any)? Fair is far, and demanding 100 percent
plus of small webcasters' profits is not only unreasonable, it's downright
vile.
It's something your publisher, and you, ought to think about before you
continue waving the "we won" flag. It's not over yet. And if it is on July
15, an industry, if you want to call webcasting an industry, that has barely
gotten off the ground, will fizzle out and die. Independent artists will
have very few outlets that will play their music.
My suggestion? Think about what you wrote, and see if you don't think you
were hasty in deciding which way the webcasting wind is blowing. If you
decide you were right all along, I feel sorry for you.
Alan
-----Original Message-----
From: audities-owner@smoe.org [mailto:audities-owner@smoe.org] On Behalf Of
Eytan Mirsky
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 6:12 PM
To: audities@smoe.org
Subject: Re: the webcasters' Day of Silence tomorrow
I don't really care one way or another because I'm sure I'll never see any
royalties from any kind of radio, but I thought I'd pass on the other side
(from a letter from the company that administers my publishing):
"Here in Los Angeles KCRW has been running a wholly self-serving campaign in
support of a legislative lobbying attempt to reverse a perfectly valid and
well-considered ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board to set rates internet
radio stations must pay publishers and labels in order to transmit their
songs. A coalition called SaveNetRadio, backed by DiMA (the Digital Media
Assn.) which is turn backed by the likes of AOL, Apple and Yahoo, are
funding this nationwide campaign and they not only have the power of
significant money, they have the airwaves to get their one-sided message out
without fear of contradiction.
The fact is the CRB ruling was proper appealed and they lost. They lost
because you deserve the reasonable royalties internet radion should be
required to pay for your music, just as traditional radio does. This is
nothing more than a blatant attempt by corporations to increase their piece
of the pie at your and our expense."
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