Bill Haenel

login | site map | contact 

On that subject...

in publicmedia

There's nothing like guaranteeing a negative... MORE

Just finished reading this very brief post on the... MORE

I read a Facebook comment about cutting federal... MORE

I’ve been watching web traffic from my desk here... MORE

I can't even begin to say how relieved I am that... MORE

"What if I started a new public media web... MORE

My good friend John Tynan from KJZZ in Arizona... MORE

Through my work with a number of public... MORE

Just a quick note here about something that... MORE

After reading the Tuesday, March 6th edition of... MORE

For me, one of the highlights about last week's... MORE

"Billions of signals rush over the ocean floor... MORE

Still using the hell out of those colons in my... MORE

Someone at the Public Media Conference who made... MORE

I really am a pathetic blogger. Not sure why, but... MORE

Recently I was interviewed by Stephen Feller from... MORE

Everyone knows how much I love public... MORE

in Radio

When will they ever learn? I've been watching... MORE

You heard it here first. Or maybe not. But this... MORE

in Music

My son decided to sit on our street corner and... MORE

From NYTimes.com: Revisionists Sing New Blues... MORE

in Internet

Flipboard, Zite, Msgboy, Pulse, Taptu, Poptart,... MORE

So I'm experimenting with a new social media... MORE

UPDATE as of 12PM EST: Facebook has apparently... MORE

I wonder if this means I won't have to help... MORE

Ever wonder what the links under the main Google... MORE

So I noticed that one of the hotter items being... MORE

I recently had the opportunity to review the work... MORE

So I don't have much time to write here, but this... MORE

OK, I admit this post might just be a bit of a... MORE

Remember Webmonkey? "The Web Developer's... MORE

So I got this note from Brookstone after buying a... MORE

This is my new favorite.It's the Washlet, and... MORE

I'm going to try something new here at... MORE

As my second installment of Web Master Tidbits, ... MORE

I have a CMS called MySiteWorx!, a software that... MORE

I don't write a whole lot of HOWTO stuff on this... MORE

Here's one to watch.  Microsoft Point of... MORE

It seems some other folks (including the New York... MORE

Recently, I've been requested by a prospective... MORE

I had the pleasure of reading the recent blog... MORE

If you've never tried it, you might want to wait... MORE

Mass Media: An ethical and socially acceptable... MORE

Posted by Bill Haenel on 06-Mar-07

Sorry to those of you who did not sign up for Email notifications from this site, but I think this news is pretty important.

I just got a note in my Email from one of my favorite internet radio stations, SomaFM.com. I'll guess that most of the folks who read this site's posts are going to want to get on the petition he mentions. Read on:

Dear Bill Haenel:

You may have heard, but once again internet radio is facing huge additional royalties for broadcasting music. These royalties are in addition to the ones that we pay to ASCAP and BMI, and are a royalty that is only paid by internet broadcasters. Over-the-air (AM/FM) broadcasters are explicitly exempt from this royalty; it only applies to internet broadcasters and subscription music services.

In the past, we paid royalties based on a percentage of our revenues, in our case 10% of our revenue. But the new royalties don't allow that percentage of revenue factor, and instead charge us for each song we play times the number of people listening. This works out to about $8 per average concurrent listener per month. In 2006, we averaged over 6000 average concurrent listeners per month, and the royalties we will have to pay for 2006 is about $628,000, over 4 times the amount of money we brought in.

And these rates go up drastically each year, until 2010, where they are 2.5 times their initial rate: by then we will have to pay over $1 million dollars a year in royalties if we want to stay on the air.

So you can see that this puts us in an impossible position. And to make it even worse, the rates are retroactive to 2006.

It doesn't seem fair that a small radio service like SomaFM has to pay all these additional royalties, when over-the-air stations who reach much larger audiences are exempted from paying them.

If you are in the USA, we would appreciate it if you could sign this online petition which will be presented to members of Congress.

It's important for us to let Congress know that independent internet radio is about to be forced out of business.

We need to keep our existing "percentage of revenue" royalty rate structure, or better yet, have Congress extend the exemption to internet radio stations as well as terrestrial (over-the-air) stations.

[Petition Address]

Thanks for all of your support for SomaFM in the past. We will do what we need to do to keep SomaFM on the air and broadcasting. We love you!

Rusty Hodge,
General Manager and Program Director
SomaFM.com


I don't think any of us want to lose the ability to run an online stream for a reasonable price, do we? Want to shut your stream down because you can't afford it? Want to lose your favorite station online? Many stations are just getting to the point where they can stream again after the last bump. Let's hope they don't go down again.

Lots more info on this subject is available on today's edition of the RAIN as well.

Send this note to a friend, either by copying and pasting (make sure you get the link for the petition right), or by clicking "Send to a friend" below.

Related topics: · · ·
Technorati Tags:
[where: 13617]
Xbox Live Gratuit