Both sides comment on the Net Radio Day of Silence

SaveNetRadio reports that 14,000 online radio outlets went silent during Tuesday's Day of Silence protest. They also claim that "nearly 400, 000 phone calls were placed to members of the House and Senate." Notice that the figure refers to number of calls made and not the actual number of different callers.

There is a bill before Congress right now that would keep royalty rates at the current 7.5% of revenue.

Trying to avoid Congressional involvement is SoundExchange, which is the group responsible for pushing the new royalty system. Today, they have offered a cap on the minimum royalty fees. Huh? SoundExchange had been looking for a minimum of $500 per streaming channel. A lot of streams equal a lot of fees. But, the proposal would put a cap of $2500 for the minimum fee in place.

Still confused? I think that's the point. But, let's count this as a minor victory for SaveNetRadio. At least they got the other side to take some action.

Internet Radio Day of Silence

Today's the day that many internet radio stations went silent to protest the upcoming hike in royalty fees. But, I have a hard time caring. Maybe it's because I don't listen to online radio. I have nothing against it, but when I'm not at work, I use radio everywhere but the computer. So, online radio going away makes no impact in my life.

I know I should be paying attention to the bigger picture here. It's sort of the old "I did nothing when they came for them and when they came for me, there was nobody left" kind of feeling. Since there's talk of hiking royalty fees for broadcast radio, if online radio gets successfully fleeced, then broadcast radio will be an easier target. And that all of us in radio should stand together against the fee hike.

Hey, wow. That's actually a pretty good argument.

Then why do I still not care?