Internet Radio Observes a Day of Silence

Attempting to draw more attention to the "Internet Radio Equality Act", many Internet radio stations are observing a day of silence today. Pandora is one of the more popular services, one which I use and love, and it too is silent today.

Pandora has posted a open letter to Internet radio users, written by Tim Westergren, here is a brief excerpt from that letter.

Ignoring all rationality and responding only to the lobbying of the RIAA, an arbitration committee in Washington DC has drastically increased the licensing fees Internet radio sites must pay to stream songs. Pandora's fees will triple, and are retroactive for eighteen months! Left unchanged by Congress, every day will be like today as internet radio sites start shutting down and the music dies.

A bill called the "Internet Radio Equality Act" has already been introduced in both the Senate (S. 1353) and House of Representatives (H.R. 2060) to fix the problem and save Internet radio--and Pandora--from obliteration.

Please contact your local representatives, and ask them to support the "Internet Radio Equality Act", you can find contact info for them here, and you can also visit www.savenetradio.org to see what else you can do.

More reading:

Help save Internet Radio - My Blog

SaveInternetRadio.Org

"Internet Radio "Day of Silence" hushes thousands of stations" - ArsTechnica

"Radio Free Internet: Broadcasters Protest Rate Hikes With Silence" - Wired

Help Save Internet Radio

If you have been listening to or reading any Tech related news sites, then I'm sure that you've heard about the recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board to increase the royalties that internet radio stations have to pay.

If you aren't familiar with the decision, here is a fun breakdown of the change:

• Will almost Triple what internet Radio stations pay now.
  
• The new fees are more than four times what Satellite Radio Pays.
  
• Broadcast Radio does not pay these fees at all.
  
• They are retro-active back to 2006, although at a slightly lower fee.
  

  I think this is a big crock.
  

  SaveNetRadio.Org has a nice little form that you can use to contact your elected officials, so flex your democratic muscles and take a minute to fill it out.
  

  Some more reading:
  

  Save Net Radio.org
  

  Net Radio: 'New Song Royalties Will Kill Us' - PCWorld
  

Radio-Locator

What a great site! A friend forwarded this site that lets you find radio station information by city or state, not to mention if the radio station is on the internet or not.

You can even search by country or station format or country.

Thanks Brent!