Mary McCaslin's Roundup
July
6, 2007
Tuesday, June 26th was observed as a "Day of Silence" by Internet
broadcasters around the country. They ceased broadcasting for that one day
to demonstrate what will very likely happen if the fees that are to go into
effect July 15th are not modified to a lower rate before then. These broadcasters
contend that the proposed performance fees are so exorbitant that they will
simply have to shut down their sites.
Internet radio has in many ways leveled the playing field by giving artists
who are seldom, if ever, heard anywhere else exposure. There are also sites
that allow the user to tailor programming to eclectic tastes. One such site,
Live365.com, is a network of thousands of members who create their own online
stations offering music as diverse as Konkani from the west coast of India
to hundreds of versions of "Ave Maria." The closest terrestrial
radio comes to presenting anything like this is the occasional eclectic program
on a local community station.
Without going into tedious detail with lots of numbers and rhetoric, my thought
is this: Everyone is out to make what they can from the recordings of people
who are simply never asked for their input. Yes, SoundExchange has done a
good job of procuring royalties from the satellite radio networks for airplay
of recordings. ASCAP, BMI and SESAC do the same thing for song airplay. But
what percentage of the money collected by any of these organizations actually
makes it into the pockets of the artists? And how is it going help anyone
if the proposed fees, set by the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) and to
be collected by SoundExchange from Internet broadcasters, are not set at a
reasonable rate? The artists and listeners will be the losers - not the "middlemen,"
who will simply have to search out some other way to get their cut.
Anyone interested in the numbers can look up Louis Hau's "Break For Internet
Radio (6/30/07) on Forbes.com. To make your displeasure known please contact
please contact your members of Congress now via SaveNetRadio.org and urge
them to take action before the new rates take effect on July 15th.
On a related topic, who came up with the term "terrestrial" radio?
All radio stations, whether they are satellite, Internet, or stations like
KPIG operate from buildings here on earth. Doesn't that make them all terrestrial?
RANI ARBO and DAISY MAYHEM
This Tuesday Rani (pronounced "Ronnie") Arbo and daisy mayhem will
delight listeners with a rare appearance at Don Quixote's in Felton. The Boston
Globe describes their music as "neo old-timey with cosmopolitan splashes
of contemporary pop and jazz." On stage they dip into country blues,
vintage swing, modern songwriter fare and Appalachian fiddle tunes and songs.
Members include Rani Arbo on fiddle and lead vocal, Andrew Kinsey on double
bass, banjo and vocals, Anand Nayak on guitar and vocals and Scott Kessel
on "Drumship Enterprise" and vocals. Arbo and Kinsey were also members
of folk-bluegrass band Salamander Crossing. It is on their Signature Sounds
recording, Bottleneck Dreams, that Rani sings her stunningly gorgeous version
of "Crossing the Bar." This song is a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson
which Rani set to music and it is truly a show-stopper.
Contact Mary McCaslin at roundup@marymccaslin.com