JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Brian Austin Whitney Blog Monday, April 23rd, 2007

I don't get it at all. We have this huge debate going on as to who pays, who is exempt, etc. etc.
Most Indies give their music away anyway so what difference does it make. Even with these new rates most Indies won't get a dime. These outfits don't pay the royalties they are supposed to be already paying.
Paltalk broadcasts music all day long. They are not paying royalties on those chat rooms. Most internet stations want a waiver. Go to Soundclick, there are hundreds of stations there broadcasting without paying royalties.
Why? Because the Indie Artists let them. And the people listen because it's FREE.

Brian posted this;
. The fans. They just want more diversity in their music choices. Little non profit and small commercial operators give them that. We had a guy here who has a channel mostly playing ukulele music for an average of 10 listeners at a time. What a cool thing to know someone is offering that. Why put him off the air? That's stupid. I am not sure that fans care if musicians get paid, but for us to have a thriving music world in this new era in technology, I think they'd like to get their free Internet radio and know those artists they love can afford to keep making music.

Where is it written that fans deserve to get FREE music?
Fans don't give a [naughty word removed] about diversity as long as it's FREE music. Radio stations that don't have a ton of commercial advertising get the most listeners. FREE music. When they have commercial advertisers that is who is paying for the music but the fans have to put up with listening to commercials ads. If a station has too many commercial ads the fans switch channels.
Same with internet radio. If the station has a bunch of popup ads or banner ads the fans complain. The other option is having payed subscribers. If ALL internet stations required paid subscribers they would be able to pay the royalties. But everyone wants it FREE. period.
Everyone wants it FREE.

I get 600 to 800 spins a month on Soundclick alone now. But it is FREE. If they had to pay a lousy 5 cents a spin I would make $40.00 a month on that alone. It isn't much but it's something.
I am played on quite a few stations. I have no idea how many people are listening to those stations so I cannot say how many listeners per spin I have. It could be a few, it could be hundreds.

Lets say I listened to internet radio 3 hours a day for a month.
Figure 4 minutes per song avg. that's 15 songs per hour 45 per day 1350 songs per month...FOR FREE.
I don't have a clue what this new royalty per song/spin is going to cost, someone else will have to figure that out.
How much would I have to pay as a subscriber to cover it and give the station a little profit. Most businesses run on about a 12 percent margin I think.
Subscription $5 a month, $10 a month? I dunno.

As long as the fans want and get it for free it isn't going to matter.
Broadcst music and the air that I breath are the only thing in this world I get for FREE.