[CS-FSLUG] Internet Radio Royalties

[Nathan T.]

Hey everyone,

I'm no US resident, but I do listen to internet radio from within the
US. On July 15th a new law will kick in raising the royalties due to
the greedy recording industry, and royalties will be due for as far
back as January 1st of last year! This will kill many radio stations,
and that is the goal of the RIAA who are afraid of losing their death
grip on the music industry to a free and independent market.

Internet radio stations are paying royalties to the recording
industries already, they are not committing "piracy"! I doubt the
radio stations I listen to even play any music that comes from RIAA
members; however, they will be affected anyway since this royalty hike
will be across all record labels as I understand it. What scares the
RIAA is the accessibility of independent music from independent
sources that they cannot control, there is already a movement to get
away from the RIAAs abuse of the market, and they want to stop that
before it's too far to go back.

I truly hope that you've all done your part to save independent
internet radio stations in the US. Being able to discover music I
liked on Digitally Imported was a boon in high school, if nothing else
it gave me something to look forward to and kept me together during
some hard times. I always imagined I'd be listening to it in
University, and that I'd have a paid membership by the time I finished
my education and had the money to spare.

I know some of you listen to Internet Radio too, and for those who
don't please consider the effect this will have on those of us who
will be cut off from the music we love as well as the loss of one of
the United States' positive outreaches to the rest of the world (DI
has listeners all over the world!). Don't let good American internet
radio stations die, if you don't know what you need to do then see
this page: http://www.di.fm/blog/read/2007/06/day-of-silence-on-june-26th.html

Don't let independent internet radio stations die. The last thing we
need is five big stations owned by three big companies, playing the
same play list of rap music, Will Smith and Eminem all day.

Thanks.

NT