It's getting down to the wire. Please recommend this diary. I hate shilling for my own diaries. But I believe this issue is important.
I'm bringing this issue up yet again because I think it's time Kossacks paid more attention. According to Bill Goldsmith of Radio Paradise, the feedback he's getting from lobbyists in Washington is that Congresspeople are saying that they are getting more mail and phone calls on the issue of discriminatory Internet Radio royalty rates than any other issue except the Iraq War.
Is it important enough to pay attention to now?
Now, at midnight on the 25th, the Internet Radio community has declared a Day of Silenceto dramatize what will happen if the U.S. Copyright Board's punitive royalty rates go into effect on July 15th.
For more background information and some emotional appeals you can follow these links to the series of diaries I've posted on this subject:
The Death of Web Radio Pt. 1
The Death of Web Radio Pt. 2
The Death of Web Radio Pt. 3
PLEASE, PLEASE call your congressperson about Inslee's Internet Radio Equality Act. Go Here for more specific information. I know this sounds like a narrow, parochial, almost irrelevant concern compared with all the foolishness we are all now confronting. But a few minutes of your time calling your Rep's office would be most helpful right now. This is the best possible time to do so.
Even a Republican has stepped up to support this bill. Can't we do the same? Our old friend Sen. Brownback has sponsored the bill in the Senate, which is S.1353.IS! Sure, he was probably lobbied by ClearChannel and Yahoo, but at this point I'll take whatever allies I can get.
There will be no more music on the Internet unless the Internet Radio Equlaity Act gets passed by the House and the Senate. If there is no music on the Internet, there will pretty much be no indie music in this country - PERIOD. It will dwindle away for good. How will even dedicated listeners like myself find new music? If you're not a teenager on MySpace, good freakin' luck. The entire music business, except for the tiny independent music labels, is tilted towards the Justin Timberlakes and Christina Aguileras of this world. Don't look to the overrated ITunes or any other download services to help. Their support of indie artists is tepid at best. Just about every artist I'm ever interested in downloading from ITunes or other services appears with a very small selection of their work, frustrating my efforts to build my collection. (Sorry. I hate ITunes. But that is very off topic.)
A stultifying sameness dominates the music industry in this country already. It is unpleasantly similar to the Fifties when all we had to listen to was the Kingston Trio, Pat Boone and Frank Sinatra, and jazz and blues musicians were outlaws. The music industry, using the Copyright board as their de facto stooges, wants to filter the music you and I hear in the same way that the mass media wants to filter the political and world news and information you and I read.
I've written numerous Senators and congressmen in two waves of analog mail-in campaigns. I've published by now a four-part series on this topic. I've spent at least three man-weeks on this issue alone, because SOMEONE had to.
Is a couple minutes of your time worth more to you than the ability to listen to the music you want, when you want? If you don't care that much, what about your kids? Your friends? Is it right that through inaction, other peoples' lives will be made more colorless and less fun, with no power to do anything whatsoever about it?
I'm writing this at 12:50 at night when I am exhausted and really should be in bed. If there was ever a time to lend your weight on this issue, the time is now. Go Here to contact your Rep and Senators. Please do it!