Help save internet radio!

Write Your Representative - Contact your Congressperson in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The RIAA has pushed the copyright review board to increase royalty rates for music broadcasted over the Internet via "streaming" audio. This is the biggest bunch of horse manure to come from the record industry I've ever seen.

Write your Congressman now to help put a stop to this!

There is a grass-roots campaign to petition Congress to pass HR 2060. I've written my letter to my congressman. It goes like this:

Dear Congressman Michaud,

I'm sure by now you have received plenty of mail, email, faxes and phone calls regarding HR 2060. I am another constituent who feels strongly about this bill. If it hasn't been iterated already, let me point out the main reasons why I believe this bill is important:

1. Many Internet users listen to music over the Internet via 'steaming' audio. It is a source of enjoyment for many. The royalty hikes would essentially put (at least) the smaller internet radio stations out of business.

2. Internet radio stations, like Pandora for example, are an outlet for independent artists' musical creations. There are many bands I would have never even known existed if it weren't for providers like Pandora. If stations like Pandora are forced to close down due to these royalty hikes, (a) these independent artists would have fewer channels for their work and (b) these independent artists would NOT get the royalties they already receive through places like Pandora. With no (or much fewer) sites broadcasting the works of these artists, where will they get their royalties from? I can guarantee to you that Top 40 stations won't broadcast their work.

Allowing the RIAA to have their way with internet radio would be catastrophic to independent musicians' free expression and frustrating to the fans who want to listen to them. I'm not saying that internet radio should get a free pass to broadcast music free, as that's also not fair to artists. But hiking the rates like this is just as detrimental, if not more so for the little guy.

Please co-sponsor HR 2060, and help keep the music industry fair.

As I look at this letter, it gets the point across, but man I need to go back to writing school. Free pass to broadcast free? Free, free, free. WTF? Alas.

Regardless, if you like the ability to listen to ANY kind of music you want, and not just what the Top 40 stations (on your FM radio) want to push down your throat, you should really give your Representative a call, or write him a letter.

Satellite radio people...not sure how this will end up affecting you, but I'm sure a rate hike for YOUR Sirius or XM is not too far down the road.