Free Republic

Another rich and powerful interest is begging Washington for special privileges under the guise of helping the little guy. This isn’t all that new. We saw this in the aftermath of the 2008 recession when the big banks argued for greater financial regulations that would have limited their future competition to “protect the interests of everyday Americans.” Or so they said. This is akin to some of the wealthiest individuals and American companies who are selling economically questionable “green” energy initiatives…that just happen to pad their bottom line. And now, we’re seeing it again from the super-wealthy record labels, shamelessly...

In the movie “High Fidelity,” John Cusack’s character owns a record store in Chicago. In one scene he turns off a mix tape made by one of his employees because it’s too loud and in your face. When the employee says he should go back and play Cusack’s “old sad bastard music,” Cusack replies, “I don’t wanna hear old sad bastard music, Barry, I just want something I can ignore.”That’s really what most of the music in our lives is – something you don’t realize is there, but you’d miss it if it were gone. And if some music publishers...

Next week, members of the Copyright Royalty Board, three of the most powerful people you have never heard of will decide how to shift millions, heck, billions of dollars from one set of players to another.The CRB is the sole arbitrator of all matters of music royalties and it is about to issue a death sentence to digital music services, like Spotify and Pandora. Every five years, the board reviews royalties paid by digital streaming services. The board's troika is set up as a panel of administrative law judges, Suzanne Barnett, chief copyright royalty judge; David Stricker, economics judge and...