Pandora Wants Radio Stations To Pay For Music, Too 253
suraj.sun sends along an Ars writeup of the lobbying Pandora is doing now that it has secured its future, royalties-wise. Some might think it odd that Pandora is weighing in on the side of the record labels in their fight to get radio stations to pay more for the music they broadcast. "US radio stations don't pay performers and producers for the music they play, but the recording industry hopes to change that with a new performance rights bill in Congress. Webcaster Pandora has jumped into the fray on the side of the artists and labels, asking why radio gets a free ride when Pandora does not. ... With revenues from recorded music sales declining, rights-holders have turned their eyes in recent years to commercial US radio, which currently pays songwriters (but not performers or record labels)... With its own future secure for the next few years, Pandora is now turning its attention to the public performance debate here in the US, saying that the issue is a simple matter of fairness: why should webcasters have to pay more for music than traditional radio does? ... [But] the 'fairness' argument could clearly go either way. Radio might start paying a performance right; on the other hand, perhaps webcasters and satellite radio companies should simply stop paying one, relying on the old argument about promotion."
Re:Why Internet radio should pay more (Score:3, Funny)
It's more like not paying the pilots on a Seattle to Portland flight.
Yeah? Well screw them guys, it's the cabin stewards who bring me the peanuts, not the pilots. What's the pilot going to do about it, crash the damn plane? Not when he's sitting in it too.
Re:Contact your state senator!!! (Score:3, Funny)
severely diminish the quality of all radios out there.
Have you actually listened to the radio? How can it get any worse? Oh no, I won't be able to hear the same eleven songs played over and over and over again with random call-ins by idiots asking for the same crappy song that got played 30 minutes ago. I don't know if this legislation will help make radio better, but I can't imagine it getting much worse than it already is.
I'm all for it (Score:2, Funny)
And if you hear someone humming a song, turn them in to the ASPCA ASAP
Re:Contact your state senator!!! (Score:5, Funny)
I can simulate a week of a Clearchannel station with a mini-CDR in a player set to deterministic shuffle.
Alternatively, one could save the cost of the CDR and still generate a passable simulation of a Clearchannel station, by beating oneself over the head with a stick for a few hours.
ASPCA or ASCAP? (Score:5, Funny)
ASPCA
Did you mean ASCAP, or did a subtle joke about animal cruelty just fly over my head?
Re:Why Internet radio should pay more (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah! He was probably going that way anyway.
Re:ASPCA or ASCAP? (Score:3, Funny)
I suppose that would depend on the song.
Death to the Sound Thieves! (Score:5, Funny)
I think what they've found here is right. The Radio Format has been getting a free ride and so have all those brigands listening to it in their cars. All the people in the world are a bunch of no-good sound thieves, Hell, they even have large fleshy scoops on the side of their heads just sucking up and stealing all the free sounds they can get close to. If only we could have those things permanently blocked so the only sounds that come through them are properly paid and licensed by the source.
I should start going to sleep at night with earmuffs on so some ghetto-blasting kid in a donk doesn't come cruising down the street blasting hip-hop and turning me into a music pirate. Then I'd have no choice but to turn myself in for participating in an illegal public listening of a song I didn't pay for.