Re: [ARSCLIST] Urgent Message From SaveNetRadio

["Steven C. Barr(x)" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

see end...
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "phillip holmes" <insuranceman@xxxxxxxxxx>
> I, for one, purchase music I hear on internet radio.  None of the stuff 
> I find interesting is from a major label.  I wouldn't hear it on a Clear 
> Channel station.   This whole thing could do a big disservice to 
> independent labels and artists if it serves to scare people out of 
> broadcasting.  Let's face it:  over the air radio is a wasteland of 
> crap.  They don't play interesting music.  They don't play music from 
> independent labels.  They have horrible sound.  They're squeezing the 
> signal to fit in "HD channels".......HD?  That supposedly means High 
> Definition.  What it really means is horrible doo-doo.  The only place 
> to find decent new music is on the internet or at a good record shop.
> Phillip
> 
> Tom Fine wrote:
> > Not as obvious to me: what percent of royalties paid go to the 
> > original artists and what percent go to Big Music companies? Just to 
> > be clear, I think a copyright owner should be paid for their 
> > copyright, but I'm curious because for an artist, there is probably a 
> > very big bite-back factor here in that if playing their music is 
> > priced out of the market, they lose vital exposure and marketing and I 
> > don't see any BM companies in a financially healthy position (by their 
> > own accouts) to step up and take on the burden of paying for exposure 
> > and marketing.
> >
Well, here I can comment while "wearing two different hats! First, I am an
Internet-radio "deejay," streaming a two-hour blues (et al) program on a
local school-operated Internet "radio" facility (or will be, once classes
re-start in September...!); second, I'm also an "indie artist" with two
blues CD's to try and sell to the vast multitudes out there in Radio-Land!

Per the first: well, my show isn't (SO FAR!) threatened...because I live in
Canada, and the educational institution is also located in Canada! However, it
wouldn't surprise me at all to see the Canadian "record industry" (AKA
CRIA...!) to push for equal benefits (for them, of course...!) Fortunately,
we in Canada haven't seen the rise of massive media operations like "Clear
Channel," which can all but monopolize terrestrial radio...work hand-in-
glove with an equally massive record industry...and, thus, tell radio fans
(especially the younger ones, who buy most of the recorded product...!)
EXACTLY what they can and can't hear! The outcome of this battle will be
VERY interesting, since the record labels have traditionally (since WWII)
supplied deejays/stations with free "promo copies" of their product (once
thery figured out that discs played on the radio sold A LOT better than
those not so available...!).

>From the second standpoint...well, my "product" will probably NEVER be
heard on commercial terrestrial radio! It is BLUES music...a genre which
generally is played, if at all, on "educational FM radio"...which usually
is low-powered and as such only heard over small areas...! Since my music
MAY be known/heard of by maybe 50 people (I HOPE, anyway...!)...and,
given the current cutbacks on consignment-based CE marketing in record
purveyors...the best I can do is to merchandise the CD's on my own
(to be built...) web site, hope the "jocks" to whom I send "promo copies"
actually PLAY the dommed things, and sit back an await BOTH the orders
I get...?! It goes without saying that if these minimally-heard educational-
FM stations are effectively blocked from streaming their signals...well, I
lose 95-99% of my audience/possible market...!

Note that if these royalties are actually paid to the artists and composers
(I'm both...), I MAY get a cheque for 12 cents each quarter! However, given
that there are/were a number of programs that were supposed to provide
payment to artists/composers...and, for the most part, only the "major"
artists/composers/label ever saw a single "red cent!!"

Essentially, I represent another "thorn in the side" to a globalized music/
record industry...each of the dozen or so CD's I've been able to flog at my
live performances is...to them...one more disc they COULDN'T/DIDN'T sell...!

And...it'll get worse! When I can finally set up my system to digitally
record...and then copy to CD-R...my half-vast shellac archives, and can
market "CD's" like "The Second-Best Of Grey Gull," or "Songs You Haven't
Heard For Eighty Years (And Now You Know WHY!)" my "label" may sell as
many as nine records a year...!

Steven C. Barr