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ARGH!! i hate the RIAA!! they killed SOMAFM.COM

D

dieselstation

Golden Member
goddamn them to hell. they went and killed my favorite station somafm.com. now i have nothing good to listen to at work since somafm played the best ambient/techno stuff around. I swear someone needs to take out the RIAA.


Killed by the RIAA. June 20, 2002.
With CARP royalties of $500 a DAY, SomaFM cannot continue broadcasting.

Yes, you read right. $15,000 a month, $180,000 a year (well, based on last month extrapolated over the next 12 months, we would have to pay $176,541 in RIAA royalties.

Don't listen to the RIAA press release that says most small webcasters will only pay the minimum $500 a year. Any station with more than an average of 5 concurrent listeners will be paying more than that minimum.

You can still help change the laws that have forced us off the air. Visit Save Internet Radio for more information on how to write your representatives. If the laws are changed, SomaFM can return to the air!!!


The final decision on webcasting rates have been published on the Library of Congress's site. To say the results are disappointing is an understatement. While the rates were effectively cut in half, that still means that to stay on the air, SomaFM will have to pay about $500 a day in fees to the RIAA. Just to expose you to new music that you wouldn't hear anywhere else. Just to help you buy more records. Do they just not get it, or is the RIAA just greedy?


To quote from their announcement: The most significant difference between the CARP¹s determination and the Librarian¹s decision is that the Librarian has abandoned the CARP¹s two-tiered rate structure of 0.14¢ per performance for ³internet-only² transmissions and 0.07¢ for each retransmission of a performance in an AM/FM radio broadcast, and has decided that the rate of 0.07¢ will apply to both types of transmission. Some of the rates for noncommercial broadcasters have also been decreased, and the fee webcasters and broadcasters must pay for the making of ephemeral recordings has been reduced from 9% of the performance fees to 8.8%.

Sign up for our mailing list to stay in touch, and to find out about future alternative ways to listen to SomaFM.

SomaFM loves you. We will miss you.

Everyone who donated money during our pledge drive will still receive their free CD as promised. We're sending out the last of them this week. If you haven't received your CD in 2 weeks, let dj@somafm.com know.

 
damn them for stopping those people from stealling music!
rolleye.gif
 
Originally posted by: Ameesh
damn them for stopping those people from stealling music!
rolleye.gif
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Bullcrap. Internet radio isnt stealing music, its just another medium....

 
Yep the RIAA first fsck the Artists then they fsck the Consumers. I'm not going to buy another CD but I will support to groups I like by paying to see them live when they do come to town(usually the only money they see from their music anyway). I will not give those theiving bastards known as the RIAA anymore of my money. And if I do want a CD I will buy it at a used place, rip the songs and resell it.
 
Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Yep the RIAA first fsck the Artists then they fsck the Consumers. I'm not going to buy another CD but I will support to groups I like by paying to see them live when they do come to town(usually the only money they see from their music anyway). I will not give those theiving bastards known as the RIAA anymore of my money. And if I do want a CD I will buy it at a used place, rip the songs and resell it.
Click to expand...
righteousness is nice, ain't it?
 
Isn't it official? They're killing themselves!

Let them continue on at this rate and no one will want to listen to music and the RIAA will be left saying "what? we didn't do anything!"

Money Money Money. It's all about the money, and not about the music. Sad, but true.
 
Money Money Money. It's all about the money, and not about the music. Sad, but true.
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Hell most of the songs put out today are about money,money and really lack creativity (especially crap..err rap)
 
I realize that Red, but for the most part look at what's happening. Why even have radio anymore? I thought the whole point of doing broadcasts was to promote the music and get it out there for people so they can purchase it.

I buy cd's, but only the ones I truly like. Other cd's with one good song can suck on it.
 
When you buy the CD you usually are just supporting the Label. You want to support the artist buy a ticket when they come through your area on tour.
 
repost

Also, it's not just a few stations. Right from Digitally Imported's website:
"Sunday, June 23, 2002


Consolidation

Following last Thursday?s rate announcement, the inevitable consolidation of Internet radio has started. Already several dozen stations have gone dark on Shoutcast including the popular SomaFM. Just as artists and labels expect to be compensated, station owners need to have something left over for the work they put in. As things ?tighten up? going forward, maintaining Internet radio?s diversity and vibrancy as a medium could prove challenging, no matter who?s left standing."

And that's just in the first 3 days since CARP went through. Wait another few months, especially when it starts getting close to October.
 
Originally posted by: Red Dawn
When you buy the CD you usually are just supporting the Label. You want to support the artist buy a ticket when they come through your area on tour.
Click to expand...
They don't come by good ol' southwest minnesota too often 😛

I guess I'll have to keep track of when some of the artists I like might be performing at the Twin Cities...
 
The reason the RIAA is shutting down Internet radio is they can't figure out how to CONTROL it as they do commercial radio.

When the RIAA is left to their greedy schemes we get even more corruption like payola.

Yhe RIAA doesn't need protection from consumers - we need protection from them.
 
I stopped buying CDs when they started to jack the prices up. Until they stop raping the consumer, I refuse to buy any sort of RIAA product.
 
Dr. Dre Featuring Snoop Doggy Dogg--Dre Day (1993) ***1/2 Convicted criminals (of funk) Dre and Dogg team up
again in another great Chronic video, this one rippin' on Dre's ex-N.W.A. partner Eazy-E. (especially mean-spirited in light of
Eazy's recent AIDS-related death, but I guess the MTV programmers didn't realize that). "Dre Day" chronicles rap- wannabe
Sleazy E. in his quest for stardom and the evil white record executive who offers him fame and fortune. "Just sign your life--I
mean your name--on the contract," he says, while Dre ominously flashes an automatic with a red laser sight into the camera.
Rest assured it's all in good fun, and boy will we be laughing at this one in about twenty years (maybe even two years).
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The artists know it and they sign it anyway. Fvck the RIAA and fvck their monopoly
 
Originally posted by: Red Dawn
When you buy the CD you usually are just supporting the Label. You want to support the artist buy a ticket when they come through your area on tour.
Click to expand...

Haha, true. But your also supporting those ticketmaster bastages... Nothing like going to a $10 concert with a $12 service charge ontop of that...
 
I wanted to buy the michelle branch CD, because I really like her work and enjoy her music. So I figgured she'd diserve a little cashola for her effort. Then I remembered that she'd only be getting a few pennies, while the rest of my money would go to some jack ass driving a ferarri in los angels. No thanks.

Concerts are a good thing to support artists though. Unfortunatly, I dont get many good concerts up my way.

I was wondering, do radio stations actually have to pay a fee to play songs? I mean, the way I always understood the system to be, was that the record companies paid radio stations to play their songs.. It seems to me that the radio stations would be their number 1 form of marketing.. I always felt that a radio station kept playing a new song over and over to promote it.. To make the listener buy the CD.. but are radio stations actually playing music for the people? based on requests?
 
I loved SomaFM.com too. They also killed FlareSound.com too which was pretty much the same style. 🙁 Are there any other ambiant techno stations left?
 
I was wondering, do radio stations actually have to pay a fee to play songs? I mean, the way I always understood the system to be, was that the record companies paid radio stations to play their songs.. It seems to me that the radio stations would be their number 1 form of marketing.. I always felt that a radio station kept playing a new song over and over to promote it.. To make the listener buy the CD.. but are radio stations actually playing music for the people? based on requests?
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Radio and internet broadcast stations both have to pay bulk music fees. I'm not sure how much it is a year, but it's a decent ammount. The problem is in addition to that, now internet radio has to pay an additional charge per song per listener that radio doesn't. Traditional radio makes revenue by having advertisements on the air (how they make most of their money) that internet radio doesn't really have much of. Radio stations in the last few years have been selling out to middlemen that the RIAA hires. They are forbidden by law to give radio broadcasters compensation for playing certain songs, so they hire middlemen they call promoters to go and tell radio station X if they play this song they'll get a nice hefty check. It started out just as a few songs a month, not it's practically all of the music on the air. User requests are still taken, rarely, and the "top 10 most requested songs of the day" lists that stations play... you guessed it... That would be the songs that the station is getting the most money to play and push.
 
Originally posted by: Red Dawn
When you buy the CD you usually are just supporting the Label. You want to support the artist buy a ticket when they come through your area on tour.
Click to expand...


This is exactly why I only buy cds from the indie labels, like Kung Fu, Vagrant, Tooth and Nail, etc........
Drive Thru is my fave label, but they have been subsidized by MCA, so...oh well.

My problem is the good bands never come through my area! I have to drive 2 hours minimum to see any good bands, so I buy the cds from those bands with the small hope that I might in some way influence what kind of music ends up being put out.

 
I hope the RIAA becomes no more, they enjoy messing up everything. Damn them, why should they get the money from all this, all they do is sue. Whoa re they really to be collecting everything.
 
I was wondering, do radio stations actually have to pay a fee to play songs? I mean, the way I always understood the system to be, was that the record companies paid radio stations to play their songs.. It seems to me that the radio stations would be their number 1 form of marketing.. I always felt that a radio station kept playing a new song over and over to promote it.. To make the listener buy the CD.. but are radio stations actually playing music for the people? based on requests?
Click to expand...

Yes, the radio pays a fee on each song it plays.

Only a few huge companys own all the radio stations in the USA (that's why they play all the same crap over and over). Radio stations are controlled by the station owners working together with the recording industry who determine what we will hear and when we will hear it (forget "requests", there is NO SUCH THING in primetime - unless you request what they happen to be playing). There are very few independent radio stations. Notice all the commercials air at the same time as every other station - but I'll give a lesson on Arbitron another day.

Did you ever hear of the big scandal of PAYOLA - where the recording industry paid the radio station to play the songs they wanted to promote? Well it is officially outlawed but still continues in a more subtle form. If a radio station doesn't play what the recording industry wants them to play, they get no more promotions (where do you thing the "free CD giveaways" come from?).

The recording industry and the radio is thoroughly corrupt, greedy, controlling and only cares for their bottom line.

I had the privilege of being a DJ and morning show producer at a truly independent radio station (it consistently came in the top 5 of the Rolling Stone listener poll voted best station in it's market) for a few years and got to see the "inside track".
 
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