Kate Bennett wrote:
> Sybil asked "Aren't some of the listmembers here involved in the music biz,
> albeit
> perhaps not directly in radio. Perhaps someone can enlighten me."
>
> I am sure Brenda has a much more intelligent response but my answer is two
> words: Clear Channel, the corporatation that has bought up the majority of
> commercial radio stations & is now venturing into the concert promotion
> business which I do not think is a positive thing.
In addition to owning SFX (one of the largest music promoters in the country -
check out this list of venues which they control -
http://sfx.com/national_venues.asp), Clear Channel owns a radio research
company, an airplay monitoring system (which they used to force the trade R&R,
Radio & Records to change which stations report playlists for charts, thus
giving themselves more chart power and squashing smaller stations) and more than
700,000 billboards worldwide. They have used this "vertical integration" to
extort artist deals for concerts by threatening to drop records from their
stations across the country if an artist refuses to make a deal to play their
venue on the terms they want.
>
> that is unless there are some regulations passed that put the small digital
> radio
> folks out of business...i just learned of something that was recently passed
> that could mean trouble for digital radio...don't have the details maybe
> Brenda does...
>
Sad to say that I do have some thoughts on this. Unfortunately, statutory
licenses for internet broadcasting are being setup in such a manner that there
won't be any small broadcasters because they won't be able to pay the license
fees and operating costs. And so-called interactive or "listener-influenced"
broadcasts (like Sonicnet and LaunchCAST) will only truly work for organizations
who don't have to pay the performance license fees - in other words, the major
labels who own the recordings and don't need to license to themselves. Although
DiMA (Digital Media Association) is putting up a good public fight, privately
most people involved have already said that the game is over.
There was a bipartisan bill introduced by Chris Cannon and Rick Boucher, titled
the Music Online Competition Act which could help the situation for webcasters.
Check the DiMA web site for more info: http://www.digmedia.org/
If the bill is something you feel you can support, write your representative.
Brenda
still playing: Groovetech - Seattle
