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 Save Internet MusicPosted on May 22, 2007
Internet radio has provided an eclectic and independent alternative to the mainstream hit-oriented, payola-ridden music marketplace, but industry greed now threatens to wipe out the medium. Truthdig checks in with Frannie Wellings of Free Press to find out whether Internet radio stands a chance and what music fans can do to save it. Subscribe to Truthdig PodcastsSubscribe directly: If you don't have iTunes, Visit the Podcast Archives Click here for a full transcript of the interview. 
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Jump to Comments
By JimmyJackFunk21, June 1, 2007 at 1:16 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
I use Mercora’s offerings, and this all makes me nervous. I really hope what the RIAA does not go through, but even if it does, it’ll be alright. Mercora has the “M” app, which lets me get my music wirelessly through my smartphone. So I’ll be fine…
Report thisBy Jacob, May 31, 2007 at 10:58 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
The music industry has been ripping off the people for a long time.How much is enough? Greed is thier main ingriedient.It cost around 2 cents to make a cd and its sold for twenty bucks or more? Am i correct over and over and over again. Thats where it should end. This whole situation would go away if the people would just wise up and say you know what i dont need to have this music and not buy it. if everyone did that and there was no money being exchanged the industry would either change and stop ripping off the public or go belly up which maybe they should anyway.i guess evertime someone reads a book in school or in the library a fee should be paid. Or maybe everytime i use the dishwasher i should pay a royalty fee. Just stop the arguing and greed dont buy the media dont turn on fm radio and see how that works. One more tidbit i wont be replacing any music i have with the next “new media” either. Yea pay you all again for the media i cant use because you changed again thats not going to happen anymore, What a racket.
Report thisBy JKoch, May 30, 2007 at 9:54 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
A new broadcasting medium is fine, but not if it mainly plays artist “hits” and skirts the royalties. It would be wonderful if the Internet radio stations promoted, with permission, work of people without access to the big studios or networks.
YouTube and similar sites are also blighted by material “ripped” from commercial sources. Small clips incorporated with source acknowledgment into a substantially unique or original result might comply with public use standards, but some things are flat-out copies with no acknowledgement or permission.
Discount royalty standards for small Web broadcasters might be fine, but not if the station format is a mirror of the network “hits,” which would only fuel illicit digital copying of copywrited work. Any site that plays mainly hits and whose visits soar above a certain threshold would have to pay royalties on par with the big guys.
Report thisBy danny, May 27, 2007 at 8:15 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Umm, ASCAP and BMI collect performance royalties on television and radio performance of music and pay the copyright owners. It doesn’t work out great for the small guy, but your guest is wrong.
Report thisBy tone-wreck, May 25, 2007 at 9:44 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Promotion is great (as an excuse).
Free radio (or almost free) so you can promote your music.
Concert that hardly pay at all ( or even cost you money through tour support) so you can promote your songs.
Get your music on a TV show for next to nothing so it will promote your music.
Put your tunes on compilations for peanuts, it will good for promotion.(I have had offers from majors in the tens of dollars!!!)LOL to their face.
Free copies to DJs so they can promoye your stuff ( they get paid a bundle though).
Free downloads actually help you promote your music too!
By the time you have done all this promotion for nothing there is no were left to go!
Brilliant!
Report thisBy Kity, May 24, 2007 at 5:55 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
I have wanted one of these forever! THANKS for the great work
Report thisBy doctordawg, May 24, 2007 at 1:21 am #
Radio music is not nor has it been “free” all these years. Radio stations sell advertising by attracting listeners by playing music, then pay the songwriters and performers through AFTRA, AFM, ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, etc. Even restaurants, bars, sports facilities and dentist offices pay royalties to play music, rightly so, as it enhances their value to their customers.
“There isnt any clear way of tracking what songs have been played, by which artists, and ensuring that that fee has gone to the actual artists.”
This isn’t exactly true, as SoundExchange.com can track internet plays from legitimate licensees very accurately. BTW, SoundExchange pays directly to the musicians, bands and songwriters if they are the legitimate copyright holders, bypassing those big evil corporations.
Musicians gotta eat. Songwriters gotta eat. Please stop thinking of “music” as something separate from those who create it. We love you, the listeners, but, man, we gotta eat.
Report thisBy Josh, May 23, 2007 at 9:17 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
I can understand protecting intellectual property, but they need to think about this. Quashing internet radio will only serve to shoot them in the foot by eliminating a major promotional medium. When I listen to internet radio, I hear songs that I want to own, songs that I had long since forgotten about and I buy the MP3. Isn’t that why radio over the airwaves has had “free” music for nearly a century? As a promotional vehicle to sell albums? They’re taking the “batten down the hatches” approach a little far and they’re going to choke themselves in the process.
Report thisBy doctordawg, May 23, 2007 at 8:34 pm #
Guys, guys, you’re killing me. Why does everyone think musicians don’t mind having their stuff stolen? Magazine writers would scream bloody murder if someone scanned and republished their stuff free on the internet. Sure, those internet radio stations “need” cheap/free content. Hey, I could run an unbelievably successful and affordable grocery store if only I could steal the store inventory first. I could sell steaks for pennies and still make a profit!
What you are advocating here is the same as if I registered truthdigg.com, just gleaned all YOUR content through a parsing script, put MY ad links on it, and enjoyed the free ride at your expense. I’d be streaming YOUR content alongside MY adlinks without compensating you. How fair would that be?
This would NOT be “good for the music,” as if “the music” is a self-generating entity. This is like saying we should be able to bootleg Stephen King or Nora Roberts books for cheap or free on the internet because it would be “good for the story.”
Please, guys, you’re killing me, and thousands like me, who either make a living writing and recording the songs you love, or we give up and sell shoes.
Report thisBy namvet67, May 22, 2007 at 8:35 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Big media, because it is now a part of the military-industrial complex is allowed to do what ever it pleases. And of course it pleases to make more money. Big media wants and needs audiences to sustain itself. They can influence market size, and content, in many ways once they are free to do business as they see fit. They will find a way to bring internet radio into their domain and rape it for all its worth. Its what they do now in the United States of Everything.
Report thisHoa binh