A Royal(ty) Pain in the Ass
Radio's RIAA bill could hit $7 billion (BILLION -- with a "B"). The RIAA is leading an effort to abolish radio's decades old exemption, and they are taking the fight to Capitol Hill. The NAB is calling it a "performance tax" on radio stations, and is vowing to fight the proposed changes.
ZombieRadio's take on this is that the rooted-in-the-past RIAA can no longer profitably dictate which CDs should be sold to the masses, so they turn to gouging the radio stations who play their crap music to begin with in order to supplement their income.
The industry has gone to extremes to outlaw payola and pay-for-play agreements, but isn't this the same sort of extortion -- only in reverse?
Should the government agree to the RIAA's demands, I think that Radio should be allowed to charge the recording industry for playing their songs on the air. Without access to the airwaves, what little CDs they are able to sell in this age of indie music downloads and file-sharing would be severely truncated.
ZombieRadio calls for all the labels to speak out against this legislation, and any labels not publicly acknowledging that they do not support these additional fees should have their artists added to a "Playlist Blacklist."
ZombieRadio's take on this is that the rooted-in-the-past RIAA can no longer profitably dictate which CDs should be sold to the masses, so they turn to gouging the radio stations who play their crap music to begin with in order to supplement their income.
The industry has gone to extremes to outlaw payola and pay-for-play agreements, but isn't this the same sort of extortion -- only in reverse?
Should the government agree to the RIAA's demands, I think that Radio should be allowed to charge the recording industry for playing their songs on the air. Without access to the airwaves, what little CDs they are able to sell in this age of indie music downloads and file-sharing would be severely truncated.
ZombieRadio calls for all the labels to speak out against this legislation, and any labels not publicly acknowledging that they do not support these additional fees should have their artists added to a "Playlist Blacklist."
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