If you don't understand the music industry and how scummy it is, you can be forgiven -- a lot of artists don't get it until they find themselves screwed, penniless, the rights to their work stolen (or bought for a song). It doesn't get the attention of the oil industry or the pharma industry or the insurance industry, but trust me, the music industry is one of the biggest scumbags out there. It's the worst kind of prostitution; instead of selling bodies, they deal in souls -- cheap in most cases.
For whatever dumb reason, the RIAA is trying to put small Internet radio out of business. Same old corporate-control-over-media song and dance, really, with all the same First Amendment ramifications. Let's take action and give those bullies a big fat black eye. Make the jump to see how and why.
This one almost slipped by me. The U.S. Copyright Royalty Office -- undoubtedly at the behest of the RIAA -- is looking to double the fees small webcasters have to pay for the music they play. Wait a minute! Isn't radio play free exposure and generally considered a good thing from the music industry's perspective? Haven't record companies actually gotten in trouble for paying radio stations to play their music -- payola? Why should web radio stations have to pay them? What a bunch of lunkheads!
"The attitude that really has to change is the idea that the people playing this music on the Web are somehow doing artists a favor," Simson says. Artists want their music to be heard, of course, and the industry likes the concept of Web radio, but Simson rejects the popular notion that the only thing small webcasters owe artists is the exposure they get from having their work streamed over the Internet.
It would be a real pisser if it weren't so funny. The whole thing will have a positive net outcome: It will slaughter the music industry as it exists today. Let the music industry dig its own grave. See if I care.
Web radio should simply address the music industry with a powerful, unified voice:
OK, f#ckheads, we don't want to pay your royalties so we won't play your music anymore. We'll go strictly indie. We'll stream from our own servers using free open source software. We'll play artists whose work we like and whom you do not own. Thousands of talented artists, including many of "yours," will gladly let us give them exposure. People will hear independent work on our stations, visit the artists' websites, and buy their CDs directly from them, cutting your greedy asses out. Artists won't mind that at all. Internet radio is the biggest radio station on Earth, with 50 million listeners, and we don't need your stinkin' commercial music. Oh, and we're also going to actively work against you and encourage a boycott of corporate crap music and corporate crap radio.
There's so much great music out there nowadays. Who needs record companies to tell us what's hot?
Seriously, f### these dumb f#####s. They no longer serve any purpose. They've always screwed artists and fans. Now it's time for us to show them who's boss.
Artists, fans, and Internet broadcasters, unite! Boycott corporate music!
Of course, in the shorter term, there is also the practical concern that what this is really all about is free speech. It has nothing to do with royalties and everything to do with squashing the ability of normal people to express themselves. Let's express ourselves to Congress. We don't have much time.