Last Internet Radio Blues Show???????

Well kids, this is it. Today is the 14th of July, and the new fees take effect Monday just 28 hours from now. I do not know what will happen Monday morning, but if you haven't contacted your representative please do! Just click on the save internet radio banner at the bottom of the blog. Tonights internet radio show is Blues Train. According to the website it features guitar blues. To listen to the show click here. Then click on the yellow circle with the speaker in it.

Since tomorrow is the possibly the last night for small time internet broadcasters, I will feature another blues show tomorrow night.

UPDATE

From what I am reading on the net the rate change takes place tomorrow. If that is the case then Internet radio will be gone at midnight. I don't know why a rate change would take place on a Sunday night, but I will monitor the situation tonight and will report here at the Blues Historian. As Edward R Murrow once said, " Good night, and Good Luck."

Another Target For The Copyright Board

I found this article from the consumerist website and it looks like the copyright board is also going after radio stations. Radio Stations have paid BMI and ASCAP, the rights to broadcast song on the air. Those fees went to pay the song writer, but not the performer or the record company. So now the copyright board is going to force radio stations to pay performance fees to the artists and record companies as well. The rational from the record companies is that they need to generate more revenue since music sales are down. Also some artists complain that they don't receive any money from their hit performances since they didn't write the songs.

However, the bottom line is that independent, and small NPR stations would find themselves out of business due to these high fees. So while I feel for these artists who sang other peoples songs, they will end up killing off the one thing that keeps their name out in public. Many of the smaller radio stations, and especially NPR stations play an eclectic mix of music from artists who would never make it onto mainstream radio. The only radio stations left ( and it is getting pretty close to that now thanks, to fiscal conservative deregulation of radio, which allow big corporations to own as many radio stations as they please) will be the big corporate radio.

So even if Internet radio gets spared from the July 15th deadline, this new fee will wipe it out anyway. Just remember keep up the fight and contact your congress person today to save Internet radio.