Webcast Royalty Rate Announced

Pullquote: That math suggests that the royalty rate decision — for the performance alone, not even including composers' royalties! — is in the in the ballpark of 100% or more of total revenues.

Radio Paradise notes:

For some time, we've suffered with a system where we pay a large chunk (10%-12%) of our income to the Big 4 record companies - while FM stations and radio conglomerates like Clear Channel pay nothing. Now they want even more. In our case, an amount equal to 125% of our income. Our only hope is to create as much public awareness and outrage about this staggeringly unfair situation as possible. Neither the record industry nor Congress are ready to listen to us at this point. But members of the public (and the media) may well be, and we need to get their attention.

The rates are clearly intended to put music webcasts out of business. This is apparently the RIAA once again deciding that that they want to keep folks like me from buying their products.

You see, last year I bought a whopping 6 music CDs. I realize that doesn't make me a huge music consumer, but it's significant to note that that's 6 more CDs than I've purchased since sometime around 1993. I stopped buying music because most of my music exposure comes from friends and radio. Post-college, I just didn't hang out with as many music evangelists, and radio is so homogenized there's never anything of interest (and anything I do like is guaranteed to be overplayed until I'm sick of it anyway, so why spend the money?)

A little while back, though, I started listening to web radio (live 365, last.fm, pandora) and found there was actually stuff out there I like. So when I bought a car with a CD player in it, I picked up a few CDs (and found my dusty decade-and-a-half collection under some boxes).

So if the RIAA manages to shut down all music venues but Clearchannel, then all that's going to happen is I'll stop buying music again. That's not a vindictive boycott, and I don't mean I'll be going to "piracy" -- I'll just no longer find the music I like, and thus won't seek it out and buy it.

Because for some off reason they don't want me to buy any of their products. Isn't that weird behavior for a bunch of capitalists? The more they tighten their grip, the more customers will slip thru their fingers.