THE RIAA AND MUSIC FIRST

[Sgeirk]

First the RIAA wants to shut down internet radio stations by making the per performance fees so exorbitant that it'll force many internet broadcasters to shut down NOW they're forming an organization called MUSICFIRST that wants to overturn the rules and allow record labels to start taking money for music performance on the radio.

Call me just crazy here...but they've been paying, one way or another for airplay all these years by various means...legal or illegal...and NOW they want to charge us on the backside?!?!?!

Anyone else think this is just stupidity at it's finest? The RIAA needs to be ABOLISHED COMPLETELY.

Due to the label's dinosaur-like slowness in getting their music on the internet to begin with, they're now trying to find new revenue streams.

They ONLY have themselves to blame for the situation they are in. I say they should just deal with it. And stop paying indies and radio stations to play their music.

If radio stopped playing new artists...music sales would crater, pure and simple!!!!

Yes, people find out about music via other means, but radio is still KING in that department.

 

[captex]

i think if they angried enough people, that they will be force in bankruptcy themselves. i'm a member of a internet music site. i always surprise to hear music i don't hear on the radio and when i driving in my car i turn on the radio to listen to. it's really the listener who will loose out on the music on the radio and the internet. i think there should be a organized effort to not buy anymore records for at least six months to a year.

 

[grantchester]

If someone was smart, they would start a public domain movement. New artists would contribute a song specificially to 'public domain', meaning no songwriter or mechanical royalites would be charged. They would be uploaded to a 'public domain' website. People would be allowed to download the songs free, and share them with as many people as they want. A public domain radio format would feature only those songs. The resulting publicity for the tunes could launch careers, and move quality artists to a level where they could support touring appearance... which is where most artists make their money these days anyway...
The record companies would resist at first, until they realize what an unmatched promotional tool it would be.
Think about Frampton Comes Alive, Silver Bullet Live, or the first Nora Jones album. They were offered at reduced prices, and sold so well the artists achieved long lasting success, and interest in their 'full price' catalog.
g

 

[SirRoxalot]

It seems like the RIAA has been hit so hard by illegal downloading and sharing of music files that they're piling on the people who do business legally. Talk about a short-sighted approach...

 

[waynewatkins]

Broadcasters need to charge artists (via the selfish RIAA, ASCAP, BMI ands SESAC) for the airtime we give them when we play their song. Two can play this game...shoe fits on the other foot, too.

 

[WhiskeyRobber]

Music artists say radio should pay them.

From the Pocono Record:

by Beth Brelje
June 18th, 2007

MusicFIRST takes a "why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free," position, saying consumers who get free music on the radio don't buy records.

"Were it not for radio's free promotional airplay of music on stations all over America, most successful recording artists would still be playing in a garage," National Association of Broadcasters Executive Vice President Dennis Wharton said in a statement, promising to fight the proposed "performance tax on local radio."

In radio, time really is money. Each minute in an hour can be sold for advertising. Stations typically run between three and 20 minutes of commercials an hour. The rest of the minutes are "given away" to music.

Imagine paying musicians for 57 minutes and only receiving three minutes worth of advertising dollars. It would not take long for local radio stations to ditch music and find another way to fill those minutes.


http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070618/NEWS/706180325

 

[Anyacat]

Remember the days when radio was so powerful, record companies would do anything to get their music on the air--even bribe the DJs. Oh, how times have changed

 

[Nate Wesley]

It seems like the RIAA has been hit so hard by illegal downloading and sharing of music files that they're piling on the people who do business legally. Talk about a short-sighted approach...

Illegal downloading could only account for a small portion of declining CD sales. The RIAA's insistence upon this as the primary or sole reason is a lie.

The real culprit (long-term) for the recording industry (and the movie studios and print publishers) is that people are moving more of their money to newer forms of media--watching TV (cable, satellite, HDTVs & DVRs), movies (at home through DVDs), portable entertainment (wireless phones, MP3/media players and download services, satellite radio ), and pretty much anything involving the internet.

That's why fewer people are watching broadcast TV, reading newspapers/books, and ultimately, listening to the radio.

 

[KevinFodor]

Or, perhaps their downturn in sales might also have something to do with the fact that the record labels today
are rarely looking for something new, or something different. Sometimes even something with talent.

Every "next" single has to be a rehashed version of the artist's last "super" hit. Don't come up with anything really new...just give us your last big hit with new lyrics, turned inside out.

Pop music these days is non-existant, because there are very few songwriters out there who know how to write it anymore. (Most of the ones who can, I suspect, may be in Nashville writing country.)

Add to it the ridiculously egrigious spending by some of the labels in the past. No wonder they're going broke, and no wonder many artists would just rather bypass the labels and go to the internet.

 

[cabradio]

Why even use a record label if you are a musician?

It would be easy enough to hire a manager that would set up a myspace/youtube account and go at it without the labels. If you truely are talented, you'll become popular and if you have a paypal link on your site, people will buy directly from you. I know a few artists doing it this way. However it is their hopes a "label" will pick them up eventually. But in all reality, the web and cheap technology would make it easier for an artist to make a living without a cash advance from a "label".

There is something romantic about hearing "your song" played on the radio, I'm sure. But if you gained a large enough following, eventually some PD would toss your tune into the rotation, depsite the "labels" control of airplay.

Think about it. If the RIAA get their way, radio stations will be clamouring for unsigned artists to play, and music radio will become real again.

 

[KevinFodor]

Which is one of the reasons the RIAA is scrambling for money any way they think they can get it.

 

[TheRover]

Think about it. If the RIAA get their way, radio stations will be clamouring for unsigned artists to play, and music radio will become real again.

It could be real today if radio, some radio, would play something besides the staid commercial hits on every genre outlet they control. In my Heaven, you would put 98% of the current Corporate Classic Rock playlist on a very long hiatis, and then, instead, play the other worthy tracks from those artists.... those artists the listeners is already familiar with! That right there would give you a WHOLE LOT OF MUSIC TO ENJOY ! ! ! TODAY ! !

As for radio paying perfomance rights to anyone...... Here's an example of how they continue their "Pay-For-Play"...... in a back-handed sort of way . . . http://www.fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=440611

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I support the goals of the Music First Coalition of artists and Industry ! ! ! http://www.musicfirstcoalition.org/

 

[KevinFodor]

Think about it. If the RIAA get their way, radio stations will be clamouring for unsigned artists to play, and music radio will become real again.

It could be real today if radio, some radio, would play something besides the staid commercial hits on every genre outlet they control. In my Heaven, you would put 98% of the current Corporate Classic Rock playlist on a very long hiatis, and then, instead, play the other worthy tracks from those artists.... those artists the listeners is already familiar with! That right there would give you a WHOLE LOT OF MUSIC TO ENJOY ! ! ! TODAY ! !

As for radio paying perfomance rights to anyone...... Here's an example of how they continue their "Pay-For-Play"...... in a back-handed sort of way . . . http://www.fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=440611

-----------------------------------------------
I support the goals of the Music First Coalition of artists and Industry ! ! ! http://www.musicfirstcoalition.org/

Yeah...those tracks nobody wants to pay for on the CD's...that's why downloading became so big, my friend. Buy the cuts you want and scratch the crap the record companies put on the CD.