[Dixielandjazz] Fw: Copyright Royalty Board Decision

[snargi at pacbell.net]

Dave, I run one of the few Dixieland stations on the internet. This decision to boost internet broadcast royalty rates stems from greed, not fairness to the performers, arrangers and composers of music. 

These artists that SoundExchange claims will benefit from the new fee structure will not be making any more money with these new rates, they will be making less money. That's because all these little stations like mine that play independently produced music are going to go away.

That this all means is that there will be NO MORE DIXIELAND ON THE WEB because there aren't any million record selling artists playing our kind of music anymore. No major broadcaster will play Trad Jazz because the ad base isn't around to support the insane royalty fees.

Here is a recent post of mine that breaks down what I would pay JUST for 20 listeners. 

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If I have to pay these royalty fees for my station, Dixieland Gumbo, it would add up to a lot of money.
   
  At 2007's rate of 0.0011 per song, per listener I would pay as follows.
   
  I average about 20 listeners at a time. 
  0.0011 x 20 = $0.022 (2 cents, that's not a lot)
   
  With an average of 15 songs per hour.
  0.022 x 15 = $0.33 (33 cents, still not to bad)
   
  Now multiply by 24 for one day's total.
  0.33 x 24 = $7.92 (About the price of lunch)
   
  Now multiply that by an average of 30 days in a month.
  7.92 x 30 = $237.60 (O M G!)
   
  For one year
  237.60 x 12 = $2851.20 (That sound you just heard was me hitting the floor in a dead faint.)
   
  I pay Live365.com $26.95 per month to host Dixieland Gumbo. I get about $6 per  month back from the total listening hours from VIP subscribers to Live365.com. Most of my listeners do not purchase the VIP subscription, they listen for free. The generous donations from some of my listeners have helped but if this Royalty decision is not appealed and reversed, I will have no choice but to shut down my station. It will be the death of all music on the Internet but Top 40 Rock, Rap and Country.
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Dave, that 26.95 that I pay to Live365 includes a $5 fee to cover the existing royalty charges, charges for the 365 megs of web space my station takes up and for the bandwidth used by my music. A part of that is their profit. After they pay their employees and the Internet companies that provide the high capacity bandwidth needed for streaming audio over the net.

If you were to compare how much the audio ad fees of internet broadcasting companies to the fees charged by mega-corporations like Clear Channel Communications, which owns 1,200 FM stations in the USA, you would find Clear Channel is making much, much more profit off of their ads while paying half the royalties that Internet broadcasters will pay.




Dave Livingston
  Dixieland Gumbo Radio
  http://www.dixielandgumbo.com/


Dave Hanson <jazzdude39 at comcast.net> wrote: Copyright Royalty Board DecisionHello all. Attached is some recent legislation that will hopefully help musicians collect royalties. It is rather long but does have a sample letter if you care to respond through your legislators.
Have a happy summer.