A new government regulation will kill Net radio dead as of May 15 unless it is reversed. Licensing fees have been almost tripled and made retroactive to 2006. If this regulation goes into effect, then Net radio as we know will no longer exist.
This is not a false alarm. It will happen unless we take action
From Pandora founder Tim Westergren in an email.
Understand that we are fully supportive of paying royalties to the artists whose music we play, and have done so since our inception. As a former touring musician myself, I’m no stranger to the challenges facing working musicians. The issue we have with the recent ruling is that it puts the cost of streaming far out of the range of ANY webcaster’s business potential.
If they kill net radio, you can bet Clear Channel and the rest will move in and replace it with the same mindless drek that’s on their radio stations now. This is pure and simple a power grab by corporate interests to destroy what they view as competition and to replace it with their own programming. Let’s stop them.
SaveNetRadio has complete information and a petition to sign to send to your Congressmembers. Take action now.