Labels to Net Radio: Die Now (Why RIAA wants to kill internet radio)

Newsweek ^ | July 15th issue | By Steven Levy

[Drew68]

Labels to Net Radio: Die Now

You’d think the record companies would love Internet tunes—instead they’re trying to kill them

By Steven Levy
NEWSWEEK

July 15 issue —  Jim Atkinson is cannon fodder in the digital-music wars. Five years ago he and his wife, Wanda, began 3WK, a virtual radio station that streams tunes of their beloved alt/indie rock to listeners over the Internet. Unlike broadcast radio, which requires astronomical investments in licenses and broadcast equipment, a Webcaster needs only software and a server.

THE RESULT IS A rich universe of more than 10,000 alternative Web stations, many of which cater to narrow if not bizarre tastes: from Hawaiian ukulele music to Tanzanian drumming.

It’s the exact opposite of broadcast radio, where the vast majority of stations are owned by a few media giants, who restrict playlists to the lowest-common-denominator ears. In the Webcast world, however, it’s possible for Jim and Wanda Atkinson to run one of the more popular sites—and one day, they hope, a profitable ad-supported business—by playing the tunes of, say, Dashboard Confessional. Possible, that is, until Oct. 20.

[Drew68]

The subtitle in parenthesis is not mine. It was taken from the rotten.com link to this article.

[goldstategop]

Let RIAA and Hillary Rosen keep it up. They'll put themselves out of business soon enough and they won't be missed when it happens.

[Ferris]

The government can create any stupid internet law they want...

They will simply be unable to enforce it...

The internet is global...

Internet radio servers will simply move offshore...

And the government, or other record companies won't be able to touch them...

THE bottom line is this...

The genie is out of the bottle...

The internet is the ultimate mover of power from the collective to the individual...

It's very existence guarantees the death of the "old school" machine...

From record companies to governments, the internet is their worst nightmare...

It is your best friend...

[Billy_bob_bob]

The secret is to have your stations ONLY broadcast music from UNSIGNED (hence UNOWNED) artists. This way you can broadcast free music and not be liable for any revenues. BTW - MP3.com is great for this, they have hundreds of thousands of artists (mostly unsigned) and thousands of stations to choose from.

[Vidalia]

Internet Streaming Radio to RIAA and other clueless exec-types: "VE HAVE VAYS TO MAKE YOU MORE IRRELEVANT THAN YOU ARE NOW..."

Genie out of the bottle is exact.

Compare the naysayers (no pun intended) about the "new, smelly contraption" to the horse-drawn carriage.

Rather than embrace realities of the future and look for ways to improve upon it as any smart capitalist would, these mini-totalitarianist executives circle the burning wagons and proceed to shoot blanks.

Their days are surely numbered, and they will be replaced by types in the mail room who stay on top of real world technology.

[Admin Moderator]

washington post owns newsweek. please post excerpts next time. thank you.

[Drew68]

Oops. Sorry about that. I wasn't aware.

Duly noted.

[Admin Moderator]

thanks.

[RobRoy]

I was at my daughters high school basketball game a few months ago and saw something astonishing. Read this with while keeping in mind that the kids are the ones who buy the lions share of cd's and are most susceptable to the marketing of musical tripe like Britney.

Ok, so here are all these kids in the stands with their portable cd players and CD's scattered all over the benches in the crowd - and none of them, NOT A SINGLE ONE was a pre-recorded CD. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM WAS HOME RECORDED/COPIED!

The recording industry execs are aware of this and they shudder! I was able to go to KazaA and download the entire quadraphenea album and Alice cooper stuff off billion dollar babies - stuff I can't even find in the used cd stores that pepper the U-district. These are 128k mp3's that make excellent CD's.

There is a shakeup coming whether the big players like it or not. And the horse is already out of the barn.

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys 8^>

[Drew68]

EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM WAS HOME RECORDED/COPIED!

Very true. There is an entire generation of kids out there who have no idea what it means to actually have to *pay* for music. The industry is aware of this and they are panic-stricken. Hence, all the work being put into making CDs that won't play on computers (and old CD players) and now this.

As far as I am concerned, as a music lover, I have been abandoned by the industry. I listen almost exclusively to talk-radio. The few bands I enjoy are small bands that I either caught live or heard about through word of mouth. These are bands that get no radio airplay.

The music industry has itself to blame. The only things they seem to promote are teeny-bopper bands, rap, hiphop and that "blink 182" style punk-pop, none of which I care for.

[sawsalimb]

Agreed. And another thing that the digital revolution has enabled people to do is to record and distribute their own CD's without having to even think about dealing with a record company. I listen to a local radio station that's gone to the "Americana" format,and they're very good about playing local music. Thanks to garage bands being able to record their own CD's in their own garage,the stuff can now hit the airwaves. I'll grant that a lot of what they play isn't earth shakingly great music,but I like listening to it-it's great to hear something that doesn't come pre-packaged and homogenized from Nashville,NYC,or Lost Angeles.

[RobRoy]

I saw a documentary about 15 years ago regarding music artist marketing in Japan. Very revealing. They would take some talented 13 or 14 year old girl (they're a dime a dozen) and market the crap out of her. All the teeny boppers woule buy her music and all the "stuff."

Meanwhile, the industry is grooming her replacement. The music is of course totally disposable. Like Coke, they're not selling the actual product, they're selling the hype. The product is just the excuse.

Well here we are in the US and we have the "boy bands," the spice girls, the dixie chicks - all pre-packaged with professional music arrangers and musicians. It's a formula for profits.

They sing in english but the music is still disposable...

[Uncle Meat]

Nothing beat Album Oriented radio back in the 70's-80's.You got to hear all kinds of great bands and underground stuff the sorry classic rock stations won't touch these days.That boyband,Bratney,rap-rock crap has to go.I can't think of any one better to have an awful demise than that bunch.Only the best end up in plane crashes I guess.

[Drew68]

sorry classic rock stations won't touch these days

Even classic rock stations suck. I love most of the music from that era but for cryin' out loud, all they play are the hits. I've heard "Stairway to Heaven" 12.6 million times. Give me a break! Play *anything* off of "Physical Graffiti" or "Coda" just once!

[Uncle Meat]

I never get tired of Physical Graffiti.Bought it when it was first released.Went through many records ,cassettes,and 8-tracks of that one.I now have the CD.All classic rock plays is Tom Petty,Aerosmith[after 1988]and Van Halen,Elton John over and over.I have several hundred CD's and even managed to replaced many of my record albums from all the way back to the early 70's.I could start my own Internet radio station with what I have.I guarantee that I would have me several listeners.I think I bought my first CD in 1987 in Germany and still haven't stopped buying them yet

[CIBvet]

Don't the sister 'Dixie Chicks' play their own instruments?

While the main singer-Chick doesn't play what I would call a real serious guitar, doesn't she have a serious degree (vocal?) from Boston's, Berkeley School of Music? And isn't she the daughter of J.D.Mainess(sp?), one of the most recorded and respected professional Steel players for aeons?

Sure wouldn't lump them in with the vacuous pre-packaged boy-bands and girl-bands. The Dixie Chicks actually know how to play their own instruments ... so you can respect them at the same time you appreciate their obvious God-given beauty.

[jodorowsky]

EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM WAS HOME RECORDED/COPIED!

alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.1960s
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.1970s
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.1980s
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.1990s
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.2000s
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.dance
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.gothic-industrial
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.prog
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.reggae
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.world-music

accessed using

GigaNews

I probably get a gigabyte of MP3s a week :) Check the latest posts a couple times a week, pick what I want, let it all download overnight.

THE MAN CAN'T STOP OUR MUSIC!

[Freedom4US]

The technology changes so fast, and more importantly the format -- CD's are great, I guess -- but I haven't bought one in years. So I bought a tube amp and a turntable and haven't looked back. Screw em'.

[sawsalimb]

I don't know if the Dixie Chicks play their own instruments or not. I remember an incident back in the early 90's,though-around '91,or maybe early '92. They stopped at the local record store(small college town in Central Texas) for an afternoon promo. I missed the promo stop,but the local station played a little of their stuff for the next few days. There were 4 of them at the time,and they were(IIRC)on a small indy label out of the DFW area. Their sound then was nothing like it is now,after Nashville got through with them.

[Nateman]

My prediction is that those who make music are going to earn most of their money from playing live. No matter how good a copy you have , there is always going to be a huge desire to see these people perform in the flesh. The Grateful Dead made a good living at this for decades.Not a bad lifestyle if your stuff is good enough: work one day a week, travel one day a week and spend the rest of it being a tourist. All because folks have easy access to your music and want to see you LIVE.