RootDownFM.com - Great, independent Net.Radio

The powers that be are doing the best they can to shut down independent programming on the Internet.

I'm pleased to report that there's a new option for lovers of the kind of music you don't hear on the FCC-regulated radio airwaves: RootDownFM.com, a subscription-only service that plays "jazz, funk, hip-hop, soul, latin, reggae, afrobeat, leftfield, downtempo and beats."

RootDown FM is a subscriber-only, internet radio station, streaming live 24/7. Subscription is the only way we can cover costs and keep our playlist as freeform and funky as our listeners like it (check our Music Policy) and ad-free.

Subscriptions cost just US$7.50 per month and we are offering a 3 day Free Trial for a limited period only!

Let's put that $7.50 a month in perspective: for less than the cost of a CD, or eight downloads from iTunes, or a movie ticket, or a couple of fancy crappucinos at a franchised coffee bar, you can have 24/7 high-quality streaming audio coming into your office or home for a full month, and discover artists new and old that you probably haven't heard before.

For the record, this blog has no affiliation with RootDownFM, aside from the fact that your correspondent is a delighted, early subscriber... and we get nothing out of our suggestion that you sign up, other than the satisfaction of potentially steering some readers to an ever-changing collection of excellent music, curated by music lovers for music lovers.

RootDownFM.com

Net Radio: time is running out

In addition to Etherbeat throwing in the towel... Rusty from SomaFM is weighing in.

Time is running out. New royalty rates will go into effect on July 15th which are 6 times more than SomaFM's total revenues. If not changed, SomaFM will be forced out of business by the RIAA.

I need you to call SomaFM's congressional representative in San Francisco, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at (415) 556-4862 and ask her to use her office's influence to demand that the RIAA come to a settlement with small webcasters. Identify yourself as a listener to SomaFM which is based in her district. It doesn't look like the IREA will get passed before the July 15th deadline with the RIAA's aggressive and false-pretense lobbying against it. Our only hope now is for a settlement, which ideally will be codified into law later.

The RIAA is blocking the IREA from passing with propaganda and downright false statements. And the worst thing is they're being sneaky about it... trying to pretend that this propaganda is coming from SoundExchange. Because everyone knows you can't trust anything the RIAA says. But the RIAA is the puppeteer pulling the strings on SoundExchange, and makes up the majority of the seats on SoundExchange.

The independent artist representatives on SoundExchange's board support independent internet radio and aren't trying to kill it, but the RIAA cronies have the majority vote.

At this point, it doesn't look like the IREA will pass, the RIAA has been very good in their lobbying. (Well, I should say, they're very good at hiring expensive lobbyists - after all, they're using SoundExchange's money to do it, and all that money comes out of the royalties paid to SoundExchange before the artists see it. Oh, the irony! Internet radio stations are paying SoundExchange royalties which are being used to lobby against net radio, and not actually paid to the artists. Yet they have the balls to tell the artists that it's internet radio that's stealing from the artists.

And even though we play very few RIAA-related labels, the RIAA has successfully made it so that even if we play independent artists, we still have to pay them royalties.

More at http://somafm.com/blogs/rusty and http://somafm.com/crb

Etherbeat, R.I.P.

The audio soundscape on the Net just got a little less interesting: Etherbeat, a net radio station that played wonderful, sometimes obscure jazz, funk and world-beat music, has closed its virtual doors.

It's with a great deal of regret that I am announcing the closure of Etherbeat Radio.

Proposed legislative changes are signalling a new climate for internet radio in which enthusiast stations like Etherbeat can't survive. Besides this, I've just found it to be too much about business and paperwork lately and not enough about music AND I'm all out of cash! So it really is time to move on to something different...

Subscribers were tipped off via e-mail on Friday that this was going to happen--and I got confirmation this morning that the site was closed for business (see above).

The promise of the Internet, for creative types, has always been that with enough connectivity, there is an audience for every taste.

There might not be twenty-five people in your hometown who would have cared to listen to Etherbeat (I'm betting there were a lot more than that) but worldwide, the potential audience might have easily numbered in the millions.

Whatever else it was, Etherbeat was a labor of love, and largely a one-man show; JC poured his heart and soul into the operation, and while there were shortages of cash at the end and exasperation with the legislative machinations currently underway, there was never any shortage of love. You could hear it in the music every day.

As I wrote to my Congressional reps a few months back:

Internet-based broadcasters are filling a culturally important role by providing high-quality alternatives to the homogenized dreck that flows over the public airwaves. They are offering music lovers a choice and presenting an incredibly diverse palette of musical styles and options to their listeners.

With Etherbeat gone, the dreck quotient just went up a little.

The mourners are checking in.

For me -- well, my days will be a little longer without Etherbeat streaming through the speakers of my work PC.

JC, you're the reason I bought a subwoofer for my work rig. ;-) And let me tell you, brother, you sold a lot of records... I can't tell you how many CDs I bought after first hearing an artist on Etherbeat.

Be well, and good luck with whatever's next for you.

Tuesday, June 26: Internet Radio Day of Silence

On Tuesday, June 26, thousands of U.S.-based webcasters plan to turn off the music and go silent in a unified effort to draw attention to an impending royalty rate increase that, if implemented, would lead to the virtual shutdown of this country's Internet radio industry.

RAIN: Radio and Internet Newsletter

Support H.R. 2060 - Save net radio

Representative Jerrold Nadler
2334 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515


Dear Congressman Nadler:

I write you today as a concerned constituent, to ask you to cosponsor H.R. 2060, The Internet Radio Equality Act.

Last month, the Copyright Royalty Board changed the royalty schedule for Net-based broadcasters from a percentage of revenue to a per-song, per-listener fee--effectively hiking the rates to be paid by Internet radio stations by between 300 and 1,200 percent.

An article in the online edition of Newsweek (April 30, 2007) explains the fee hike succinctly:

The fee hike will only affect Internet radio, not terrestrial AM and FM, because of a strange wrinkle in copyright law: broadcast stations pay royalties only for the composition as a piece of intellectual property--these are the fees that go to songwriters through ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. But in 1995 the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) lobbied Congress to pass a law that would require an additional performance fee specifically on digital music. So Internet radio stations pay both the composition fee plus an additional royalty for the performance of the song--the actual act of streaming it online. (Source)

H.R. 2060, The Internet Radio Equality Act, was introduced recently by Representatives Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Donald Manzullo (R-IL) to save the Internet radio industry from these ruinous royalty increases. This bill seeks to temporarily peg the royalty rate for Internet radio at the same rate that satellite broadcasters pay (7.5% of revenue) while a new fee structure is hammered out.

Congressman Nadler, I can’t think of many businesses or nonprofits that could sustain a 1,200 percent overnight rate hike; it amounts to the death penalty for Net radio, because it would put most Internet radio stations--the vast majority of them small businesses and labors of love--out of operation, just at a time when a few of them are starting to find some support as commercially viable businesses.

Internet-based broadcasters are filling a culturally important role by providing high-quality alternatives to the homogenized dreck that flows over the public airwaves. They are offering music lovers a choice and presenting an incredibly diverse palette of musical styles and options to their listeners.

Please don’t let bad policy kill Net radio, a welcome and sorely needed cultural and technical innovation.

Please cosponsor H.R. 2060.


Sincerely,

Barry T. Campbell

Save net radio!

The future of Internet radio is in immediate danger. Royalty rates for webcasters have been drastically increased by a recent ruling and are due to go into effect on July 15 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!). If the increased rates remain unchanged, the majority of webcasters will go bankrupt and silent on this date. Internet radio needs your help! H.R. 2060, The Internet Radio Equality Act was introduced by Representatives Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Donald Manzullo (R-IL ) to save the Internet radio industry. Please call your congressperson to ask them to co-sponsor H.R. 2060...

Save Net Radio

Compared to the stagnant audio wasteland that is commercial radio, net radio stations like Etherbeat.com are a hit of pure oxygen. The new royalty structure for webcasters is designed to shut them down, plain and simple.