Over the last 7 or 8 years, I have repeatedly come back to listening to a couple of favorite internet radio stations. These are stations that instead of broadcasting over the radio waves have been streaming music through the internet.
I first started listening when I was working at
Mohawk Northern Plastics. Back in the late 90's, there weren't many options, but there was
Soma FM's Groove Salad. Then when I was working at
AccessLine in 2000, I started listening again. I stopped for a while, listening only occasionally over the last few years. I've found myself back to listening to it again, and have recently learned that it is getting more and more difficult for them to continue to broadcast due to the greediness of the record companies.
The record companies are now trying to enforce the internet radio stations to pay royalties on a per-play basis. The regular radio stations still get to play everything for free. The Satellite companies (Sirius and XM) each currently pay a percentage (that is still extremely expensive). But the record companies think that the internet outfits (usually some geeks - no offense intended, I am one - in a spare room) to pay on a per-play basis...
I encourage you to visit
http://www.savenetradio.org to learn more, and to contact your local representation in support of this alternative to the broadcast spectrum.
I know I'll be making some extra phone calls to try and save one of my favorite access points to music that I otherwise can't find.
Labels: Internet, Music, Politics
