I have been thinking about the new internet radio fee structure. I think the Copyright Royalty Board is making a mistake by change. I am not saying that the fees cannot go up, but I think it is really early in the life of internet radio for the fee structure to change to radically. This is not the case where there are internet radio companies that are just raking in the revenue and the copyright royalty holder and being left out in the cold.
I am not sure who is lobbying for this change, but my guess is that there will be few winners here. I think that the record companies might win, but individual royalty holder might lose. Increasing the fee structure is likely to send small internet broadcasters out of business. There is a good chance that the increase payment from the other broadcasters will not make up for the revenue that will be lost by sending smaller companies out of business. It will be bad for smaller record labels and smaller artists. They will be losing the venue to be heard and the revenue from being played on smaller internet broadcasters.
If internet radio stations go away, I think this will encourage people to pirate music. A lot of these internet radio stations free to listen to. If they are not around many of those listeners will find other no cost ways to find music. What little money is going the the royalty holder would go away.
I find this to be a little funny in the light of the XM and Sirius merger. One of the arguments for why the merger would be fine is because there is so much internet broadcasting out there. My guess is the XM/Sirius will not change their stance.
I do not listen to much internet radio. I have way too much music to listen to already. I want there to be internet radio to be out there. The promise of the internet is that size does not matter. I will be able to find very specific niches out there. This change is designed to kill off some of those niches out there. That is a bad thing. In the end internet broadcasters will set up outside the US. In the US there is no door on the internet to block them. It is bad for business. That is reason enough for the US not to make this mistake.
I was a little surprised to hear that KCNL is dropping Spanish format. Over the past decade or so Spanish language radio has been very profitable in California. I wonder if this is a change in radio. Has Spanish language radio his a saturation point or was this channel just doing it poorly?
I have not listened to the new station yet. I know I should check it out. I found this quote to be interesting.
The station, licensed in Sunnyvale with offices in San Jose, plans an ambitious new lineup, which will include listeners picking what to play and announcing songs from mobile studios built into two Scions that will rove the area.
I am not surprised that Air America filed bankruptcy. I will admit that I am not a huge radio fan, but I respect radio. This is not the first time Air America has run into problems. I remember hearing a story about Air America on NPR's On The Media. (I do not remember the specific show)
The problem is that you cannot just stick a talker in front of a microphone and expect it to be good radio. The host or the producer has to understand radio. They have to know how to keep a audience through a brake and how to pace a show. Whenever I listed to Al Franken his shows sounded like he knew nothing about radio.
When I worked in radio I remember that Rush Limbaugh's audience was extremely loyal to the sponsors to the program. When Snapple first launched nationally they advertised on Limbaugh. They could see the effect on their sales. Even as the ratings feel the audience would buy the products that were advertising on the show. I am not sure Air America ever got that loyalty. I wonder if it because their target audience is more cynical about advertising
"It was doomed to fail," Mr. Limbaugh said, according to news wire reports. "They were not a broadcasting concern to begin with. ... They went into business to affect elections."
When I worked for WNZT in Columbia PA I talked to the owner a lot. He did not care about the politics of the shows he ran. He just carried that they made money. He was a very political man, but he knew that business was business. That is the problem with putting politics before business.
On Sunday I hung out with Cathy, Chris, and Steve. Cathy described that day pretty well on her Live Journal. We spent a couple of hours doing her radio show. It was surreal on some level.
After the radio show we sung karaoke. Cathy has been telling me about this karaoke night for a long time. She loves going to this place and she wanted to show us why. Cathy knows that I have a history with karaoke. When I was 23, right out of college, I used to hang out at a karaoke bar all the time. She had heard lots of story of bad songs. I once suggested that a karaoke wedding reception would be a good idea. She knows that I would be at that bar every week if I lived in Philadelphia.
She described it in her Live Journal, but I cannot figure out how to link to specific entries. I decided to take this right from her page. Just remember that "I" refers to Cathy. I do not back up dance.
Peter did "Detachable Penis"
Steve did a bunch of old country stuff, like Hank Williams, and "Blue Suede Shoes"
Rich introduced the crowd to his "everything is sung like Tom Waits" stylings, taking on The Carpenters and Paper Lace's "The Night Chicago Died"
I did my best ever effort on "Mr. Roboto" and "My Sharona", rocking out, doing the robot and the Molly Ringwald dance.
Some new songs were done. Trishy debuted her version of Olivia Newton John's "Physical". Elisa took on The Spinners' "I'll Be Around".
I did more backup dancing duty.
Strangely Joe H., the DJ, struck up two conversations with me, and I got a hug at the end of the night. He definitely seemed in the holiday spirit.
The best moment of the night was when a large group of us got up and performed "Do They Know It's Christmas?" ala Band Aid.
Cathy left out that I sang Your Cheatin' Heart. I like that song because anyone can sound like a hillbilly. The group singing "Do They Know It's Christmas?" was great.
We had a great time on Sunday. It was the kind of night that I really look forward to having when I go back home. It had the kind of energy that nothing else mattered but having a good time right then.
Right now I am sitting at Cathy's Radio show. She is doing a Christmas show. We have been doing little skits for the songs that are not Christmas Songs. We played Pacman Fever, Ain't Nothing Going to Break My Stride, and The Dream Police to name a few songs. This is something that I would not have done if I was in San Jose right now.
