The SoundExchange Billion Dollar Administrative Fee 127
palewook writes "On June 7th, Yahoo, RealNetworks, Pandora, and Live365 sent letters to US lawmakers emphasizing they owe SoundExchange 'administrative fees' of more than $1 billion dollars a year. These fees would be paid for the 'privilege' of collecting the increased CRB royalties effective July 15th, unless the Internet Radio Equality Act passes Congress. SoundExchange, the non-profit music industry entity, admits the levied charge of $500 per 'channel' is supposed to only cover their administrative costs. Last year, SoundExchange collected a total of $20 million dollars from the Internet radio industry. Under the new 'administrative fee' RealNetworks, which hosted 400,000 unique subscribed channels in 2006, would owe an annual administrative charge of 200 million dollars in addition to the retroactive 2006 rate hike per song played."
My heroes (Score:5, Funny)
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If it would be 99% administrative costs then we have to share a very small part of the remaining 1% with artist! That would make no sense at all.
Re:My heroes (Score:4, Funny)
There's always money to be made in the carbon offset business...
To put this in perspective (Score:5, Informative)
in fair comparison.... (Score:3, Interesting)
In other words, who gets what without the internet?
The Net Is Almost Too Disgusting Any More (Score:2)
I also agree with net neutrality. That's the problem. I just hate it that anyone thinks they have to resort what is tantamount to extortion. Or that anyone has to resort to extortion.
People predicted long ago that once money got involved with the n
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You act like the statement was prophetic and not just stating the obvious. Money is a common denominator for all interests. As such, wherever money is involved, it will bring in all manner of individuals... including those with very predatory motives.
The Internet and computing in general have expanded to a point that it attracts a vast number of individuals. Some are dec
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Well then do us all a favor and stop doing it.
I'm so conflicted (Score:1)
Wait a second here... that means whoever ends up getting screwed, I win. Rock On.
Re:I'm so conflicted (Score:5, Insightful)
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Why?
The answer to the recording industry in can guess if you actually mean RIAA. But they are not the whole industry, they only represent the biggest companies.
But why hate Real Networks? They have indulged in some dubious business practices in the past I thought they stopped those when they jumped on the Open Source bandwagon.
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The recording industry wants gobs of money, is inherently evil, and hates the internet.
RealNetworks wants gobs of money, is somewhat evil, but loves the internet, puts out a very good mostly OSS Linux media player, and is just as screwed as SomaFM and (insert station here) if this goes through.
Hmmm....
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(this is an sarcasm free question)
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I h
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Interesting that this comes up when I just finished discusssing this with a friend not ten mins ago. I use the linux and os x real client fairly regularly. Id say the linux version is better... but the os x version is bad. It just seems to have the occasional visit to needing a visit from Mr SIGKILL every now and then. Thats said the real player is about a gazillion times better than the os x version of windows media player. I swear that microsoft write software
Just like a cancer (Score:5, Insightful)
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stop (Score:2)
I've stopped listening to recorded music entirely, as a matter of principle.
Re:Just like a cancer (Score:5, Insightful)
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For years, local performances have all but dried up due to unfair competition from big labels. I see them coming back now as people are more willing to part with money at these venues. Let the RIAA kill off the rest of the music world. What will be left is truly the best part anyway. What bothers me about this deal, is breadth and the reach of the internet radio fees. What about a station that plays nothing but non-label music with knowledge and permission from the artist(s)? Are these stations then t
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Yes. It is exactly like that. The RIAA will collect royalties for indie music as well. They keep those royalties until such time as the indie artist joins the RIAA. Granted, those pre-collected royalties would probablly not even cover the sign-up fee to join the RIAA.
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Wow! That smells illegal. I have not followed in as much detail as I need to, but I had a feeling that what was going on was cartelish. For an organization to be allowed to have fiduciary powers over any or all of a non-granting principal's monies and then be allowed to force that principal to pay a fee (extortion?) to collect those monies does not seem even plausibly legal. (IANAL)
At the very least the RIAA ought to be forced to surrender whatever fees they collect to the parties that have not signed o
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The internet will kill the RIAA.
Now that I have this post in my slashdot history, I can now count the time until I am eventually right. RIAA can absolutely not win, not now, not never. No amounts of lobbying, government attempts at control and regulation will ever stop people from doing what they want to do: listen to broadcasts.
Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaa! (Score:2, Funny)
What's not mentioned... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What's not mentioned... (Score:5, Insightful)
This is always touted as one of Microsoft's lessons learned - be involved in the government. Part of this is probably due to a belief that the anti-trust lawsuit was a vendetta brought on by more politically savvy sour-grapes competitors. I don't agree. But I do think it was only a matter of time for Microsoft to get involved anyway.
Microsoft is a large entity with a vested interest in how the market behaves. And the market itself is large enough to touch on almost every aspect of our lives (its what "we" always knew would happen back in the '80s with our little hobbiest microcomputers waxing poetic about the future). With the market so important, Congress is going to get involved eventually... mainly at the prodding of lobbyists from other industries touched by the expanding IT market. It makes sense that Microsoft would decide to have its views put in the ears of Congress as well.
Does this mean Congress-critters are demanding payouts? I'm not so sure its exactly that (although I would expect it is accurate in some cases). But I am positive you're not going to be well represented if those that would represent your view are unaware of what that view is. Or even worse... people with an opposing view have managed to convince your favorite Congress-critter that reality lines up with their viewpoint (queue this post's theme song [youtube.com]).
I wonder what real will do.... (Score:5, Funny)
Only Americans will be silenced (Score:5, Insightful)
We'll still be able to listen to Russian stations.
Where's you're "In Soviet Russia..." joke now, bitches?
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In Soviet Russian, the radio listens to YOU!
Re:Only Americans will be silenced (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Only Americans will be silenced (Score:4, Insightful)
Privacy in the US isn't what it was anymore.
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Sounds to me like you're wanting "In Post-Soviet Russia..." jokes. We don't do those. They're not funny.
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I Soviet Russia, the internet radio plays swan song for American internet radio.
Resposible Government, the anti-drug (Score:4, Funny)
SoundExchange to Government: I learned it from YOU OK! I learned it by watching you *sob*
SoundExchange runs out of the room while Government stares into the distance meaningfully.
no love lost with Real Networks, BUT - (Score:5, Insightful)
While I don't advocate someone blowing their office to flinders with a bomb or some other evil terroristic act, I am surprised that it hasn't happened yet (one would think that with all the loosely bound people in the USA, one of them would have freaked out by now and targeted them...)
What I DO advocate is that the RIAA and the MPAA and their associated organisations be banned and eliminated and the music and film artists and industry re-organise itself along more open and egalitarian lines.
RS
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{cough}http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085959/ [imdb.com]{/cough }
I think you spend WAYYYYY too much time on /. (Score:2)
Perhaps you have lost your perspective from too much time on the net. When all is said and done it's just music were talking about. People go nuts for lesser reasons, sure, but I question if the issues surrounding the RIAA has had anywhere NEAR the exposure it would take to have the statistical nutjob appear. Ask 100 people about the RIAA and 95 will have no idea what you're going on ab
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Now, if SoundExchange continues on its quest for a billion dollars in administrative fees, some of the moral issues will become known. Thousands of people would be annoyed or distressed if Yahoo! Launchcast (all zillion stations--Yahoo! personalizes them for their users) was taken off the air. Many of
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Probably because even the nutjob asshats reckon it's not worth the cost of the bullets
Re:no love lost with Real Networks, BUT - (Score:5, Funny)
You're going to jail for this!
While I don't advocate someone blowing their office to flinders
Fine, you're off the hook...
with a bomb or some other evil terroristic act
That's is: jail time!
I am surprised that it hasn't happened yet
Oh ok, you're a fine fella.
(one would think that with all the loosely bound people in the USA, one of them would have freaked out by now and targeted them...)
Effin terrorist! JAIL!
What I DO advocate is that the RIAA and the MPAA and their associated organisations be banned
Oh, banned. That's cool I guess.
Screw it, I'm calling the FBI on ya!!
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Misread TFS. (Score:2)
Then I reread it, and realized Real, Yahoo! and the others were pointing out the consequences of the CRB decision.
Non-profit spending accounts ? (Score:3, Interesting)
I know here in Canada, charitable organizations have to spend something like 80% of their income on the cause, with the remaining 20% expected to cover administrative expenses and salaries. I could be wrong on the numbers but it's in the ballpark. There is also a limit on how long an org can sit on their money, so for example they couldn't raise 1 million in a year and siphon off the 20% over five years. If that weren't the case, everyone and their mother would have their own non-profit company as a tax-free retirement account.
And don't start telling me they're actually paying the artists. They're paying the publishers, the agents, the producers, the "everything up to 11" pop mix "engineer", and of course the lobbyists. Besides, SoundExchange's information is such a market driver that it's in the industry's best interests to have doped and skimmed numbers depending on who they're pushing that particular week.
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From the wiki for nonprofit:
Most experts consider the legal and ethical restrictions on the distribution of profits to owners or shareholders as what fundamentally distinguishes nonprofits from commercial enterprises.
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If you're in the business of online music distribution, and this extortion organization is threatening your bottom line, it is your duty to protect the livelihood of your business, by suing the enemy.
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It's sad... (Score:1)
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Captcha: dollar. How appropriate.
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I'm confused. (Score:1)
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It's only fair ... (Score:2)
If this actually becomes law, I think the proper thing to do is to sue on behalf of the "not for profit" SoundExchange (a.k.a. a front man for the RIAA) all the radio stations, counting each listener as an individual channel.
Then sue all the record stores, counting each customer as a unique individual channel. At the end of all this, no industry recorded music would be sold, a
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As mentioned previously - this is ONLY the U.S. of A
Creative Non-Violent Protest: Don't Effing Pay (Score:2, Insightful)
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Is this a prime example of a GetRich Quick scam? (Score:3)
It really looks that way.
A Racket for sure (Score:2)
What prevents me from creating my own organization and start billing radio stations and internet sites for song plays, because I
just use internet media outside USA? (Score:2, Insightful)
for the American media consumer to listen to internet radio from provider outside the USA?
The US GOV and commercial media can certainly herd the mass, though for the computer literate
it is possible that they go outside USA while sitting at home in USA?
Either way, the USA is turning into terrible place with much economic stagnation, not to
mention that general intellect is simply absent there.
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This isn't practical in an Internet without pervasive global multicast services. Do you think ISPs are really going to let their extraordinarily expensive trans-continental pipes be clogged with Internet radio?
And don't assume BitTorrent-like schemes solve the problem, as your friends and neighbors participating in a swarm would have the RIAA beating on their door for redistributing Inter
The Fee is Per Channel... (Score:5, Insightful)
If Pandora has ten thousand listeners like me, that's twenty thousand stations times $500 per station is ten million dollars. That's probably enough to kill Pandora and any other customizable channel internet radio site. But if the internet radio site only had say five channels, that's only $2,500, easily affordable by a commercial site.
My conclusion from this little exercise is that the RIAA is out to kill customizable channels. They don't want you to learn about music on your own. They only want you to listen to whatever the latest pop sensation is. They want to eliminate choice and the extra expense of having so many artists. If they can make it so all you ever hear is the generic artist of the moment, that's all you'll know and all you'll buy.
This is all about control. RIAA wants to make sure they control not just your access to their artists but your ability to discover new artists not under their contracts. Internet radio is a growing force and a growing threat to their ability to pick what music you buy.
I can only hope that they have overreached; that the huge amount of money involved here makes their motives visible to Congress. And that Congress cares. That sure makes it sound like a lost cause, doesn't it?
EXACTLY (Score:2)
Looks pretty easy... (Score:1)
Re:If you didn't vote Libertarian YOU ASKED FORTHI (Score:5, Funny)
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I can just as easily say "Thank God we didn't vote Libertarian. Things would have been so much worse."
Meh. I hate politics.
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Re:If you didn't vote Libertarian YOU ASKED FORTHI (Score:1, Flamebait)
Given the choice between total obliteration of our society and the fiscal raping of a few for-profit companies, I think we'll screw Real.
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I guess the collateral damage makes it all worth it? That's a little like killing a guy by blowing up the 747 he's riding in with 350 other people. It's much better to eliminate the laws that protect the cartels that are nearing the end of the road. But then, who's going to kill that golden goose?
Re:If you didn't vote Libertarian YOU ASKED FORTHI (Score:1)
Besides, the whole point of the idea of "democracy" is to let people complain about the government. We can complain all we want. Nyaaaah.
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Re:dollars $ dollars (Score:5, Funny)
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With my pinky finger at the corner of my mouth and a pool full of sharks with lasers attached to their heads in the background.
That's how I pronounce it. Muhahaha.