Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Defend Internet Radio


Last month 10,000 DJ's spun over 100,000 different musical artists on their Live365 Internet Radio stations, including our very own Radio Scenewash. Did you enjoy the Ronette's Be My Baby. Well, what about the other music that is played across the Internet radio community?

25 million hours of music streamed to 5 million music fans. Every one of the 150 million performances accounted for, and composition and sound recording royalties paid. Variety unheard of on am, fm, even satellite radio. And that's just Live365!

Now Internet Radio has been singled out from all other radio, burdened with fees not paid by AM or FM stations, and at rates at least 3-4 times that paid by satellite and cable radio. The new regulations even include absurd minimums to penalize the smallest webcasters with the highest rates.

This decision by The Copyright Royalty Board ("CRB") will silence thousands of DJ's mixing an incredible variety of artists new and old, big and small, by following their own eclectic tastes, not dictated to by corporate software.

If these regulations stay as they are, Internet Radio is going to be reduced to few stations playing only limited number of mainstream acts over and over. Sound familiar? It doesn't have to.

The INTERNET RADIO EQUALITY ACT (Bill HR 2060) has now been introduced in Congress. A simple phone call to your Congressional Representatives, Senators and Congressperson, to ask for their support on this Bill will go a long way to insure Internet Radio expands to stream the world of music that deserves to be heard.

Visit SaveNetRadio to get the number of your Representative. Support the right to be heard!

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