It has been a week since the CRB handed down the new royility rates that Internet Radio will be subjected to in the future. For myself, this could be devestating. We at BluegrassRadio.org just cannot afford the huge increases we will be required to pay. I already have cut our listening audience by 50 percent to keep us under the magic number of listening hours. Listeners to BluegrassRadio.org are outraged. It appears that greed has overcome common since.
I ask the Bluegrass music industry this question. When was the last time you were played on commercial radio like Clear Channel? If internet radio goes away, you will not be heard on any outlet execpt the ocasional weekend show on public radio outlets. It seems this will not help your cause. If stations like BluegrassRadio.org, WorldWideBluegrass and BluegrassCounty.org go away, how can this help your music?
I have said from the begining that the artist should be paid for their music, but the playing field is no longer level. Traditional broadcasters pay nothing to Sound Exchange, which is the collection arm of the RIAA despite that some want you to think otherwise.
A lot of Bluegrass musicians, and members of the record industry, have written to us about their concern of Internet radio’s possible demise. Then their is the minority that think this is OK and I respect their opinion.
This ruling by the CRB needs to been overturned or Bluegrass artist and Bluegrass music will lose, big time.
