[via Matthew Lasar @ Ars]

There’s a new battle developing in the bitter war over the Performance Rights Act—proposed legislation that would require terrestrial radio stations to pay royalties to the artists whose songs they broadcast. The Federal Communications Commission has agreed to hear comments on reports that radio station owners are “targeting and threatening artists who have spoken out in favor of the PRA,” with some going so far as refusing to play their music. The FCC is responding to a Petition for Declaratory Relief submitted by the MusicFIRST coalition, a group backed by the Recording Industry Association of America, SoundExchange, and various musicians’ groups.

Read the full story

Is Radio Suppressing Pro-Performance Rights Act Artists? is a post from: wax&wires

In this episode:
- Skunks
- Royalties, Pandora and the New Deal
- Spotify U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!
- EMI in the troubles
- The Bird And The Bee
- Promoting your band (get off the internet!)

If you missed the article on the new net royalties deal, you can find it here, as well as read the Pandora blog post I mentioned down in the followup section to that article, or go directly to it here.

You can find more info about Spotify’s US deal in this Forbes.com article, which I referenced on the show.

Since the taping, EMI has taken some steps to dig themselves out. They’re currently being advised to issue some high-yield bonds to repay the Citigroup loan. That worked for Warner a month or two back, so maybe that could help knock down the $4.2 Billion they need to pay off by 2015. Citi, as suspected, is quite reluctant to forgo the debt.

Here’s Bob Baker’s article on getting your music heard, as well as Trent Reznor’s blog post, both of which I touched on during the Wires section of this episode.

Here’s a link up to The Bird And The Bee’s album, Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future.

I would love your feedback (good or bad!), just shoot me an email: tim@waxandwires.com and be sure to check out the main site, waxandwires.com!

wax&wires tv – Episode 003 is a post from: wax&wires

After two rough years of negotiations, and rumors that royalty fees would send internet radio to a miry grave, SoundExchange reports that they have reached an agreement on streaming-music royalty rates.

As it breaks down, larger ad-supported sites like Pandora will either need to share 25 percent of their revenue with the music industry, or fork over 0.08 cents ($0.0008) per play. That rate will gradually increase, and cap off at 0.14 cents ($0.0014) per play in 2015. The kicker is that the rate is retroactive to 2006. So while Pandora will have a big check to write, it’s a much better alternative to completely tanking.

The new structure affords for smaller sites to break into the market too. If a site generates less than $1.25 million in revenue per year, they only have to pay 12-14 percent for rights to stream music. Once they cross that $1.25 million threshold, the rate jumps to 25 percent (or the per play rates stated above), but by then, hopefully the company would be large enough to sustain the rates.

I like this deal. It seems like a good compromise. The 19 cents per play that the Copyright Royalty Board was initially asking for would have potentially done irreparable damage to web streaming sites, and prevented new sites from starting up due to the crippling start up rates. The new structure offers a manageable rate where both parties can survive.

With the ever-expanding availability of wi-fi, a deal needed to be reached soon, as net radio is sure to replace terrestrial radio soon enough. This deal is a step in ensuring that we plan for longevity with streaming music.

Net Radio Reaches Royalty Deal is a post from: wax&wires

I aim to crank out one episode every two weeks for you, and hope you enjoy. If you do, please be sure to comment it up and share with your friends!

Thanks!

EPISODE 1!

In this episode:
- Airquote Abuse
- Seattle-based rock group Barcelona
- Miles Davis – Kind of Blue
- thesixtyone.com

As promised, here’s a link up to Kind of Blue. You can also pick up the Legacy Edition for an additional $7, which is well worth it for the added tracks. If you can track down a mono recording on vinyl, be sure to check it out, as it brings a completely different experience to the album.

You can read a previous post about Barcelona, as well as pick up their album here.

Check out what I’m listening to at thesixtyone.com/timothydean!

Follow me on Twitter, where I will likely post nothing about music…

Email me questions, comments, suggestions, thoughts, anything you got!

wax&wires tv – Episode 1 Now Available! is a post from: wax&wires

Pull those roots to the now, and you have thesixtyone.com.

thesixtyone makes music culture more democratic: artists upload their work for review, but, rather than allow a stuffy suit in a boardroom to decide what’s good, thousands of listeners do. The best music automagically bubbles up on our homepage where you can listen to the most popular songs for any genre. It’s a quick way to find new music for your iPod powered by pure excitement as opposed to some contrived marketing budget.

Think you’ve got a good ear? Aside from customizing your experience, creating an account allows you to earn reputation, level up your influence, and collect badges for discovering and recommending good music that others may enjoy. On thesixtyone, tastemaking becomes fun, competitive, and trackable.

We’re on a quest to help people fall in love with something new while giving deserving artists an efficient channel for finding their audiences. To learn more about how thesixtyone works, please see our FAQ.

Don’t get this mixed up with Pandora, where you select songs you like to find recommendations generated by their staff. TheSixtyOne is a different animal. While it does stream music for free, that’s about where the similarities end.

TheSixtyOne allows artists to submit their own content, and have it voted up to the homepage by users of the site. There’s an incentive for users to vote too, as listeners get credits for discovering music and voting it up before it becomes trendy to. Users also get credits for various “achievements,” like reaching a particular play count, being the first person to favorite a song, or getting others to listen to your playlist. You can check out the leaderboard to see which users are the hottest trend spotters.

All of that creates a system in which the homepage reflects a current sampling as to what music is on the rise.

The interface is clean and easy to use, the sound quality is very good, and there are more than enough users to make it a fun site to use.

I could write a bunch more, or you could just check it out.

TheSixtyOne – Game Theory Meets Music Discovery is a post from: wax&wires

In case it’s not clear enough, payola is bad news bears because it creates a structure in which only bands with major label backing have a realistic shot at getting radio airtime. Ever wonder why your local college radio station and public radio have such a broader range of content? There you go. Well, we’re running out of graves for the few indie radio stations left, so it seemed about time for a check-in on big radio.

Back in April of 2007, the FCC and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer put a beat down on major radio to shut down the practice of payola. They hit the radio stations with about $12.5 million in fines and required that they set aside over 4,000 programming hours for independent artists. Maybe big radio just thought “indie” referred to the genre rather than the label, because they haven’t changed their ways.

The Future of Music Coalition just released a report comprised of four years of research finding virtually no change in radio practices between 2005-2008.

FMC looked at each playlist and calculated the “airplay share” for five different categories of record labels to determine whether the ratio of major label to non-major label airplay has changed over the past four years. The data in the report indicates almost no measurable change in station playlist composition over the past four years.

While that may prompt many a cynic to conclude that payola is alive and well, FMC has another, albeit related, explanation.

The playlist data analysis underscores how radio’s long-standing relationships with major labels, its status quo programming practices and the permissive regulatory structure all work together to create an environment in which songs from major label artists continue to dominate.

So in essence, with their “risk-averse programming practices,” and culture of payola-tainted music selection, big radio simply doesn’t know how or where to fit in new independent artists, try as they might. Think of them as the Detroit Lions. It’s not that they don’t want to win, they just don’t know how not to lose because it’s all they’ve ever done.

So what are some steps to take in order to help reshape terrestrial radio?

I don’t think terrestrial radio will be a major media market for too much longer, as internet radio becomes more readily available on the go. I also think that internet radio is daring, and even forcing, terrestrial radio to become more creative and risky with their content or die. FMC suggests that radio stations expand the “number of voices on the public airwaves.” I think this is the biggest key to whether or not terrestrial radio can be salvaged. By increasing the number of DJs, you’re giving an opportunity for more variety to be heard, assuming you stop making every DJ play the same 20 songs on a loop. Then, think through what terrestrial radio has that internet radio doesn’t. For most music shows, it’s the DJ. The personality and song selection of the DJ will be what wins people over; something they won’t find on last.fm or Pandora. DJs that are hip to local music on the rise, have good energy, and engage their audiences well will connect to a listener base that net radio can’t yet reach. It’s worked with Talk Radio, and it could be the saving grace of our FM friends.

Photo: Mark Sebastian

If Payola’s Been Slain, Why Does Big Radio Still Sound The Same? is a post from: wax&wires

I was glad to see that Jonny Greenwood at least cited the positives as to why they signed to a label. Given that by now the marketplace has changed and the labels have changed, thus the perspectives from many of these musicians have changed since the days they signed on the dotted line. To assume that the major labels are the devil incarnate, and have been from day one, is a misconception though. If it were as such, all of the successful musicians we know, that now campaign against the majors, would have to be cited as fools for having gotten on board with the bigs in the first place.

I’m not for or against the major label. I think whether or not a given artist would be better off independent is completely dependent upon how hard they are willing to work to get their product out there, how long they hope to stay on the scene, and how much of their artistic freedom they are willing to bend on.

With regards to the music industry and music distribution, I think a new means of music acquisition can only happen as fast as the consumers allow it to. So long as labels see force feeding bands to the radio working, they will continue to do it. Independent terrestrial radio is on its last legs, and I think terrestrial radio in general will be soon to follow. With the increasing availability of wi-fi, and the infinte access to custom tailored stations that comes with it, we’re only counting the days until AM, FM, and Sattelite are all brought down by net radio.

VIDEO: “Why Radio & Music Industry Sucks Nowadays” is a post from: wax&wires

Under current law, musicians get a big fat zero when their music is played on AM and FM radio (they do get royalties from satellite radio, cable radio services, and other nonterrestrial broadcasters).

According to Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), the United States is one of the few industrialized countries (with the exception of Iran, China, and North Korea) that does not compensate artists and performers for airplay. I heard her yesterday on Air America radio talking about the bill.

Read the full story.

Bill Backs Payment To Musicians For Radio Play is a post from: wax&wires

From Indie 103:

Indie 103.1 will cease broadcasting over this frequency effective immediately. Because of changes in the radio industry and the way radio audiences are measured, stations in this market are being forced to play too much Britney, Puffy and alternative music that is neither new nor cutting edge. Due to these challenges, Indie 103.1 was recently faced with only one option — to play the corporate radio game.

We have decided not to play that game any longer. Rather than changing the sound, spirit, and soul of what has made Indie 103.1 great Indie 103.1 will bid farewell to the terrestrial airwaves and take an alternative course.

This could only be done on the Internet, a place where rules do not apply and where new music thrives; be it grunge, punk, or alternative – simply put, only the best music.

Much like Indie 103, we used to have a great station in San Diego called 92.1, The Independent. They were great supporters of local music, and simply had good taste. One morning, San Diegans woke up to a commercial country station on 92.1. No announcement or warning, none of the DJs you remembered, just a complete overhaul, overnight.

I later heard that 92.1 was bought out in the dead of night, and the offer was just too good to refuse, so the indie owners caved. That was quite a few years ago, before internet radio was as common as it is now, leaving no outlet for 92.1 employees or fans.

If anyone can make the transition to net-only, 103.1 will. Deemed the nation’s best radio station in Rolling Stone, and the only station worthy enough to preview Prince’s new songs, Indie 103.1 has enough street-cred and followers to survive on the net.

It is frustrating that independent radio can’t seem to find a way to succeed via traditional radio though.

The glimmering hope in all of this is that it may just have pushed Indie 103.1 to take a course of action that the rest of the broadcast industry will be pushed to follow anyway. That translates to a momentous head start for the indie station. I say the rest of the industry may have to follow because as wireless broadband internet becomes more accessible from all locations, I strongly believe that people will begin using mobile devices to fetch their favorite content. Would you rather be stuck turning the FM dial to sift through a myriad of commercials in order to find any entertaining content, or hear your favorite artist or podcast anywhere at any time? Easy choice.

Satellite radio was a bust. AM/FM radio is quickly becoming outdated. Internet radio will fly.

The biggest question is, can Indie 103.1 generate enough revenue in a net-only medium to stay afloat until Internet radio becomes the norm?

LA’s Indie 103 Goes Web-Only “Effective Immediately” is a post from: wax&wires