The Sunday New York Times had an interesting story about the operator of an Internet radio station who's trying to stay afloat despite rising music copyright costs. The Times quoted Bridge Ratings statistics showing total Internet radio listening in America at 55 million as opposed to 279 million who listen to terrestrial (free) radio. Internet radio listening has gone up 26% in the past year. A lot of that listening is done on-the-job where terrestrial radio reception is often inferior. Of course Yahoo and AOL lead the way with portals featuring videos, music news and zillions of song choices. Thrown into that mix of choices is NPR, college, commercial and satellite radio. In addition to all those choices we now have a new breed of broadcasters who are manning their own Internet radio stations and they're starting to make a dent...
Anyone can start broadcasting music online (Ken "Spider" Webb, a veteran R&B personality from New York was the first person I knew of that started his own station years ago). Under a deal in effect since 2003 Webcasters with annual revenues under $1.25 million, pay 10% of their revenues or 7% of expenses to satisfy copyright laws. The big guys like Yahoo and AOL have to pay per song. In March the Copyright Royalty Board, a federal panel (exactly who are these people?) issued a ruling allowing SoundExchange, an organization that collects 90% of the royalties for songwriters, to charge all Webcasters on a per-song basis and raise the cost of playing a song from $.0008 to $.0019 by 2010, making royalty payments undoable for most broadcasters. In August, they backed down...
On August 21, SoundExchange offered to extend much of the current rate structure until 2010, thanks to tons of opposition generated by protests and the help of a handful of lawmakers. How wide spread this movement of new Internet radio stations can grow (right now they number in the thousands) will depend a great deal on how much the copyright rates rise in 2010. I'm in no way an advocate of some person starting his or her own radio station with a handful of their favorite records but it does create still another choice for consumers, doesn't it???
10 Timeline Memories:
- 1957] Last exit from Brooklyn: The Dodgers play their last game in Brooklyn at Ebbets Field in front of 6,702 fans. They beat the Pirates 2-0 with Gil Hodges driving in the final run in Brooklyn...
- 1961] Curtains: "I Love Lucy" bows out after a run of 10 years. One of the classic scenes from the show is "Vitameatavegamin": http://youtube.com/watch?v=KzgVvAy-6ms ...
- 1961] Premiered on this date: "The Bullwinkle Show", originally known as "Rocky and His Friends" in an afternoon slot, the primetime run lasts 3 years with reruns until 1973...1964] "The Munsters", CBS-TV's answer to "The Addams Family" runs first-run for 2 years and then in syndication...1968] "60 Minutes" begins ticking...1968] "Mod Squad" on ABC-TV until 1973...1977] "The Love Boat" sets sail on ABC-TV and won't dock until 1986...
- 1969] Behind the 8-ball: A trial begins for the "Chicago Eight", accused of inciting riots at the 1968 Democrats national convention in Chicago...
- 1969] The Mets shock baseball: The New York Mets beat the heavily-favored Baltimore Orioles to win their first World Series. Here's the final out captured on this video clip. Curt Gowdy does the play-by-play: http://youtube.com/watch?v=DgY_YZTiV9U...
- 1972] Broadway Joe beats Baltimore: Jets QB Joe Namath passes for 6 touchdowns in the Jets 44-34 win over the Colts...
- 1976] Guilty as charged: Patricia Hearst is sentenced to 7 years in prison for her role in a 1974 bank robbery. She serves 22 months before Jimmy Carter sets her free on a clemency order...1988] After shooting it out with a Georgia state trooper, James Brown is arrested...
- 1991] "Happy Trails": Dr. Seuss a.k.a. Theodor Seuss Geisel dies of natural causes at 87...
- 1996] No Nukes: Bill Clinton and other major nuclear powers sign a treaty to end all testing and development of nuclear weapons...
- 2005] Not lovely: Hurricane Rita strikes eastern Texas and the Louisiana coast, causing more flooding in New Orleans...
Music Memories:
- 1977] Released on this date: "Come Sail Away" - Styx: http://youtube.com/watch?v=BARLfUmyBJA ... 1982] "1999" - Prince...
- 1994] Live from New York...It's Saturday Night: Eric Clapton kicks off the 1994 season...
Commentary...
We lost two entertainers over the weekend who made millions laugh with the passing of the legendary mime, Marcel Marceau and the veteran actress, Alice Ghostley. Marceau who could make you laugh or cry without a spoken word was 84 when he passed away in his native France...The Tony Award-winning actress Alice Ghostley, star sidekick on "Bewitched" and "Designing Women" was the victim of cancer at 83. "Happy Trails" to both...
"Happy Birthday...happy birthday":
Nia Vardalos (45), Joseph Kennedy II (55), Football Hall of Famer, Mean Joe Greene (61), Lou Dobbs (62), Gerry Marsden (65), Angels' Barbara and Phyliss "Jiggs" Allbut (65), Sheila MacRae (83) and Jim McKay (86)...
Timeline Countdown: 9 days until the MLB playoffs and 30 days until the opener of the World Series...
