VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Hart]

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/03/internet_radio.html

Scary stuff. I've come to love the diversity offered by pandora.com and others. I'd hate to see it all lost.
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Hart Voice Overs Blog
Brian Hart Productions

[glittlefield]

The irony is that a majority of internet-only stations are run out of the pockets of the owners who can barely afford to keep the station running. I've been a fly on the wall at a few stations and it's very difficult to raise substantial advertising capital with an internet station. Most corporations won't even look at you.

Personally, I prefer to look at it as more of an impetus for stations that feature all original material (opportunity for voice actors, perhaps?) than the death of the medium.
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Greg Littlefield
VO-BB Member #59

[John M]

I was a Webjockey for over 8 months. It's a fun job, a way for people to express themselves and free advertising for the bands played. It's a damn shame to see this. I really cherish the experiences I had, and the station manager at that stream is going to be hard pressed to keep going if he has to pay more than he already does to keep things going.

[Dave]

Sadly, I actually have a dog in this fight. Three of them in fact!

My stations (featured on Woodlands Radio Network) will be subject to the new royalty fees if the ruling stands as approved by the Copyright Board. I have had some say I should just pay the royalties since "its only $0.0008 per listener."

But the numbers add up very quickly. And we're talking $$$ I can't imagine ANY internet station being able to offset. Unlike the broad majority of stations, my operation is one of the few that actually generates income and in fact, more than pays for itself. Even so, based upon my current audience, I can't possibly absorb what would amount to royalties of $75,000 a year IN ADDITION to my BMI/ASCAP royalties AND steaming costs.

At this point, I'm like a deer in the headlights. Totally unsure what my next step should be. Serveral of my "brethren" have already pulled the plug in fear of a huge bill (retro-active) for 2006.

The only thing I am sure of... the RIAA's (read Sony, BMG et al) hand picked three man board "of experts" have delivered what they have been bought and paid for.

Dave
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. If at first you don't succeed, then bomb disposal probably isn't for you.

[Yoda117]

it should be interesting how this affects legislation on the "Fair Use" Act that's currently being debated.

Even better, whether Berne will provide an exemption after those guys get done their amendments.

I'm amazed that this stuff isn't in www.overlawyered.com as of yet.
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Voiceovers by Gregory Houser
Philadelphia based Voice Actor

Blog - A man, a martini, and a lot of microphones

[davediamondprovo]

Oh GAWD how I wish someone would jump this bully (record companies) on the playground after school and beat the living daylights out of them. Record companies mince no words when it comes to their agenda, making money. They lie, cheat and steal from their own artists, why wouldn't they do the same to consumers. This battle cry "We're loosing money because of piracy" is total crap. It's simply ammunition for lobbyists to cry to our government about more regulations.

I digress..It's been written on the net (somewhere) that it's not going to be long before we are forced to license (usage per term) EVERYTHING we "own." Mobile phones, appliances, motor vehicles, cameras, everything. Not just in the US either, everywhere. Prepare for the revolution, I say.
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David

[Jowillie]

Obviously no musicians getting rights fees on this thread.

Oh yeah, it's killing me too on several fronts. Muncipal attorneys are telling local governments to not even play local radio stations on their information channels on cable.
WE
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Wild Willie Edwards
www.hometowntvtoday.com
http://vomictest.blogspot.com

[donrandall]

The industry benefits from airplay which helps create and fuel demand for their product. The stupidest damned idea of all time was to make payola illegal. The broadcasters and netcasters ought to just stop playing their music for a while and let them see their sales go in the dumper. Every time their record gets airplay, that is an advertisement for that record because that record is a product that is for sale - and getting free advertising isn't good enough for 'em? They demand to be paid for the privelege of helping boost their sales?
I say charge them per play - and stick it to 'em just like they're trying to stick it to everyone else. Pay the deejay a commission! Why the bloody hell should the broadcaster or netcaster have to pay the greedy bums for the privelege of helping them sell their product?

[Hart]

Don, there you go! I love it.

Several years ago I worked at a radio station where the GM essentially tried something those lines. Record companies could pay us per spin to play their records from midnight to 6am. Sure nobody was listening, but it would increase the spin counts on the Radio and Records charts, etc which was really all they cared about from a small station like ours. And before anybody screams "payola!," it wasn't because we announced before each song that it was paid for by So and So Records.

It was an interesting idea but we dropped it after not too long. The few people that were listening complained (and complained loudly) and we only had a few record companies bite. In the end we decided our image (of not being controlled by the "big bad record companies") was more important than the little money made from that experiment.
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Hart Voice Overs Blog
Brian Hart Productions