 RAIN 6/19: RIAA contradicts its own earlier argument in push for radio royalty, observers point out ·Jun 19, 12:43 PM TECHDIRT, REASON ONLINE: RIAA NOW CONDEMNS THE UNLEVEL PLAYING FIELD IT HELPED CREATEBroadcast radio is the only medium still enjoying “special treatment,” in the form of an exemption from royalty payments to performers. After all, satellite and Internet radio pay these royalties, so why not AM/FM? Aren’t they all “equivalent”? This is a commonly-used argument by the RIAA and other label-friendly organizations pushing for the passage of the Performance Rights Act. But years earlier the RIAA was arguing that, in fact, “digital broadcasting is different from conventional broadcasting,” as Jesse Walker, managing editor of Reason Online, points out.
During the late ’90s, the RIAA and record labels argued to Congress that Internet and satellite radio were completely different from terrestrial radio. Therefore, they said, these services should be charged royalties for the use of sound recordings. Now, these same groups are arguing that terrestrial radio should be on the same level as digital platforms and should therefore also pay a sound recording royalty. The RIAA originally argued that digital transmissions were different from AM/FM broadcasts in pushing for the passage of the Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings Act in 1995 (more info here). Their argument was that “digital transmissions of music were about to allow consumers to make a ‘perfect digital copy’ of the music being transmitted,” as RAIN publisher Kurt Hanson explains in his summary of copyright law (found here). “Those perfect copies were going to impact revenues for recording artists horribly — so horribly, in fact, that they might lack sufficient motivation to record music thereafter. Given that nightmare scenario, the RIAA Fast-forward fourteen years, and “the industry now wants to claim the channels are equivalent after all,” Walker writes (here). “The RIAA conveniently wants us all to forget history,” writes Mike Masnick at TechDirt. “The only reason why this ‘unfair’ dichotomy exists in the first place is because the RIAA lobbied for it by claiming that satellite radio and internet radio were different.” Read TechDirt’s coverage here. SIRIUS XM iPHONE APP MISSING STERN; NASCAR, MLB, NFL PLAY-BY-PLAY Sirius XM launched their iPhone application yesterday, but early adopters have found some omissions in the app’s channel line-up: Howard Stern, NASCAR, MLB and NFL play-by-play are not available from the app. Those omissions, caused by “mobile-performance rights” according to the company, could be damaging to the popularity of the iPhone app, or its ability to bring in new subscribers. With “countless free apps already in the App Store that will play the same songs as the Sirius XM app, with added personalization,” and even a MLB application offering streaming radio play-by-play for a one-time fee (RAIN coverage here), “this app isn’t the way to profitability,” writes CNET’s Don Reisinger (here).
PEW: 63% OF AMERICANS HAVE HOME BROADBAND CONNECTIONA new study by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found that 63% of U.S. adults have a broadband connection at home, a 15% increase from last year. The average cost for this service increased slightly to $39 from $34.50 last year. Read the full report from Pew here.
YAMAHA UPGRADES ITS MULTI-ROOM HOME STREAMING SYSTEMYamaha’s MusicCAST2 home audio system streams Internet and networked music through a sleek touch-screen controller to as many as 32 receivers. The system can play Internet radio channels, music from iTunes libraries, audio from USB-connected devices (including iPods) and music from cell phones via Bluetooth connection. The system will set you back $400-500, depending on which model you choose. For more, check out iPodNN’s coverage here.share: del.icio.us.  Reddit  Digg  Yahoo  Wink  Windows  Google  Newsvine 
CommentCommenting is closed for this article.  Other stories RAIN has upgraded (and moved)! RAIN 9/13: RAIN Summit Chicago takes place today! RAIN 9/12: First Summit in RAIN's hometown takes place tomorrow RAIN 9/9: Summer holidays, "doldrums" impact July Webcast Metrics, but audience up over last year RAIN 9/8: Clear Channel launches new customizable iHeartRadio beta; RAIN goes hands-on RAIN 9/7: Meet more speakers you'll hear at RAIN Summit Chicago in less than a week RAIN 9/6: Clear Channel taps The Echo Nest to take on Pandora RAIN 9/2: RAIN reviews Spotify's radio-like product Artist Radio RAIN 9/1: UK online radio aggregator Radioplayer campaigns b'dcasters to create "all radio" ratings RAIN 8/31: Execs from Merlin, Triton Digital, jacAPPS and more to appear at RAIN Summit Chicago |
asked Congress for an additional monopoly right regarding the ‘public performance’ of sound recordings when a digital transmission was involved.” Simply put, the 
