All good things must come to an end
Tuesday, March 20, 2007, 05:41 PM CST [General]
Renradio has been broadcasting since 1999. I've fought and worked hard to keep
it on the net and free. I have made many compromises as big business has tried
to push the small web casters out of existence and control what you listen to
just like terrestrial radio and satellite radio. I never wanted to compete with
them I just wanted to listen to the music I like. I wanted to share it with
other like minded people in a legal and honest way. Over the years Renradio went
from something I set up to play with and listen to at work to a peak of 3 24
hour stream station with over a thousand listeners. Renradio was voted as one of
the best Celtic and Folk station on Yahoo and Live365. I don't play Pop
music or anything mainstream but the RIAA and big record labels still
wanted (more) money. I joined Live365 the 1st time the RIAA raised the rates so
I could keep playing even though I had to let them insert commercials and take a
vow of poverty and not make any money off the station. Not that I ever intended
to. It was a hobby, it was for fun.
I have made many new friends and met so many talented artist. I gained a bit of notoriety and fame within our community as "Rengeek the owner of Renradio". It got me free beers and plenty of thanks and compliments. And to my amazement people donated money and their talents to keep this thing going. Truthfully this is what has kept me going when my life took a turn for the worse.
I don't want this to go away.
But the apathy and willingness for this country, and it's government, to let big business do what they want no matter who's freedom it steps on or what they take in the name of money leaves me with little choice. I can not justify the hundreds of dollars they will demand or the hundreds of dollars they want retroactively to continue this station. I frankly don't have the money or the energy to continue to fight alone. I'm tired, so very tired of the fight.
We all like a stories such as David and Goliath, but in the end we all know it is just a fable.
I have made many new friends and met so many talented artist. I gained a bit of notoriety and fame within our community as "Rengeek the owner of Renradio". It got me free beers and plenty of thanks and compliments. And to my amazement people donated money and their talents to keep this thing going. Truthfully this is what has kept me going when my life took a turn for the worse.
I don't want this to go away.
But the apathy and willingness for this country, and it's government, to let big business do what they want no matter who's freedom it steps on or what they take in the name of money leaves me with little choice. I can not justify the hundreds of dollars they will demand or the hundreds of dollars they want retroactively to continue this station. I frankly don't have the money or the energy to continue to fight alone. I'm tired, so very tired of the fight.
We all like a stories such as David and Goliath, but in the end we all know it is just a fable.
Tags:
Help save internet radio!
Friday, March 16, 2007, 04:27 PM CST [General]
This can also be read on my internet radio website Renradio.com
"Internet radio may be driven out of business within weeks by a Copyright Royalty Board decision that gives record companies a royalty rate that exceeds 100% of most webcasters' total revenues..."
In a nutshell the powers that be in the recording industry want to almost triple what is paid to them per song from internet radio stations. What was difficult to do will become impossible and this station will go down.
From the RAIN web page.
BY DANIEL MCSWAIN
The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has announced its decision on Internet radio royalty rates, rejecting all of the arguments made by Webcasters and instead adopting the "per play" rate proposal put forth by SoundExchange(a digital music fee collection body created by the RIAA).
RAIN has learned the rates that the Board has decided on, effective retroactively through the beginning of 2006. They are as follows:
The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has announced its decision on Internet radio royalty rates, rejecting all of the arguments made by Webcasters and instead adopting the "per play" rate proposal put forth by SoundExchange.
RAIN has learned the rates that the Board has decided on, effective retroactively through the beginning of 2006. They are as follows:
2006 - $.0008 per play
2007 - $.0011 per play
2008 - $.0014 per play
2009 - $.0018 per play
2010 - $.0019 per play
A "performance" is defined as the streaming of one song to one listener; thus a station that has an average audience of 500 listeners racks up 500 "performances" for each song it plays.
The minimum fee is $500 per channel per year. There is no clear definition of what a 'channel' is for services that make up individualized playlists for listeners.
For noncommercial webcasters, the fee will be $500 per channel, for up to 159,140 ATH (aggregate tuning hours) per month. They would pay the commercial rate for all transmissions above that number.
Participants are granted a 15 day period wherein they have the opportunity to ask the CRB for a re-hearing.
Within 60 days of the final determination, the decision is supposed to be published in the Federal Register, along with any technical corrections that the Board may wish to make.
Within 30 days of publication in the Federal Register, it can be appealed (but only by the participants) to the U.S. Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia.
UPDATE
There is a petition site set up at SAVE THE STREAMS.ORG
Tags: