Recording Industry trying to kill Internet radio again

From CNET News:

Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) had harsh words for a ruling released Tuesday by the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board. It proposes raising the amount that commercial Internet radio services pay to record companies by 30 percent retroactively to 2006 and in each of the next three years through 2009. Each station would have to hand over a minimum $500 royalty payment.

"This represents a body blow to many nascent Internet radio broadcasters and further exacerbates the marketplace imbalance between what different industries pay," Markey said at a hearing here titled "The Future of Radio". The hearing was convened by the House panel on telecommunications and the Internet, of which Markey is chairman. "It makes little sense to me for the smallest players to pay proportionately the largest royalty fee."

What we have here is a move by the recording industry, prompted by the XM / Sirius merger proposal, to squash independent online broadcasters who dare to play by their own rules. The RIAA wants to place impossible spin tracking requirements and charge exorbitant fees for the rights to play music -- moves that are not designed to recoup money from these online broadcasters, but instead crafted to severely limit the playing field.

Under these rules, only internet broadcasters that can afford to pay the already-astronomical fees would be able to continue, and those that can't afford payments retroactive to 2006 find themselves in shit up to their necks. The $1.28-per-listener-per-hour rule being proposed here could completely shut down the internet operations of little guys like WCUR and WPRB, and even severely hamper the efforts of some bigger players like KEXP and Y-Rock on XPN.

To take WCUR for example, assume a rather meager 20 listener hours a day for 275 days out of the year (June, July, and August are typically pretty dead) -- that's $7,000 on top of the initial $500 fee. Seven grand is a solid one-third of that station's budget, and could probably force their hand to either turn off their internet simulcast or to (gasp!) start advertising on their online stream to make up for their lost revenue. And, if the station's listener base grows, the problem grows in proportion as well: if WCUR ever gets so popular as to have just 50 listener hours a day, these fees will suck them completely dry.

Of course, we're using the WCUR example because it's the one we're intimately familiar with -- but we know the world probably won't miss it when another shitty college station that plays pro wrestling entrance music as the majority of it's format gets canned. The stations that truly care about the music enough to dedicate their time and effort to providing quality alternatives to the homogenized muck that's out there now will certainly all perish. This bill has the power to single-handedly destroy the most promising radio medium since FM went mainstream -- and the best way to stop it, it would seem, would be to contact the guy we already know is on our side, Rep. Ed Markey, and voice your support for his actions against this crap.

Link via [CNET & Open Congress]

MACRoCK 2007 coming .... in 2008

Thanks to a timely heads-up from Eavvon, we see now that the MACRoCK website has been updated to include a new design and a new message for 2007:

Guess what?! MACRoCk has gone on safari!

Contrary to some rumors, our ship has not sunk. During our trip, we found a new home that we loved so much we decided to stay. The MACRoCk committee has thought long and hard about our mission and has decided to partner up with the Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance. We are now in stride to become a completely independent conference, free of the legal backing of James Madison University, with whom we have operated over the past ten years. The conference will now be housed completely in the Harrisonburg downtown area with the support of local independent venues and businesses.

In order to bring our community the highest quality conference we can, we have decided to forgo the conference this spring and prepare for April 4, 5, of 2008. To all our friends and supporters, we're sorry to have inconvenienced anyone with our lack of communication. No worries, next year the shit is going to be bananas!

We look forward to seeing you all next year.

Hugs and Kisses,
The MACRoCK Committee

First of all, kudos to the MACRoCK kids for soldiering on under what must have been tremendous pressure from James Madison U. to make this show profitable. While having a decent-sized influx of indie kids from all over the East Coast every April was undoubtedly a small boost to the local economy, JMU had pretty much nothing to gain but headaches from the annual rush. Disassociating themselves from the university is a good move that should free them up to do some wild new things, such as getting more sponsors and growing the conference beyond the limited capacity it had before. Once they're independently financially stable, we ought to see some bigger musical attractions as well.

The cons to this move? Obviously, a move off-campus means there might suddenly be more "21+ only" than all-ages shows for a conference that has traditionally appealed to the 18-20 year old college crowd. MACRoCK's slow creep from JMU's prestigious concert halls to Harrisonburg's many strip-mall bars and clubs has been spreading for years, though, which means the transition away from the school probably won't lock out too many underage kids. The price range is a slight concern, too -- MACRoCK has always had dozens of shows, expos, and discussion panels available over the course of two days for the approximate equivalent of the tank of gasoline it takes to get down there -- a fucking bargain when compared to the music industry circle-jerk that CMJ has become.

In all, Eavvon and myself have been keeping pretty close tabs on what the WXJM kids have been up to these past couple of months, and I suppose we're generally pretty happy with the steps they're taking. Obviously, completely skipping 2007 is bogus, but not really avoidable with less than a month to go before the conference was scheduled to go down. However, these folks are wise to recognize the potential the event has, and they're making a courageous move stepping out of the comfy confines of a university that has probably grown a little tired of the annual migration of freeloading idiots such as ourselves.

Goddammit though, there goes my annual built-in road trip! Where to now? Boston in May? Perhaps Los Angeles in June? Who knows?

Rinse, Lather, Repeat

Atrios breaks down the Ann Coulter Hate Speech episode:

I know there are those who wonder why we bother with this stuff because it's all very predictable.

1) Ann Coulter makes racist or homophobic comment.
2) Ann Coulter provokes outrage.
3) Ann Coulter gets more TV appearances because of it.

It's true. But I'm not outraged at 1) or 2), I'm outraged by 3). That part was predictable as well, but it's important to keep calling them on it.

Link via [Eschaton]

Jack Cafferty is an angry, angry man

Jack Cafferty returns to the Situation Room and tears shit up over the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.


The entire story is just another disgraceful episode of incompetence and mismanagement in this administration -- and I bet most people aren't even concerned with the story. Well, this story in today's Metro paper sure got my attention (emphasis mine):

Under what conditions were you first sent there?

I was at Walter Reed from April 2004 until 2005 with a gunshot wound to the head. They did the surgery in Baghdad and replaced part of my skull with a titanium plate. They transported me to Germany before sending me to Washington.

Were any of the problems that have come to light in the last few weeks visible when you arrived?

It struck me immediately that they were completely overwhelmed. Things like mice, mold and roaches — they didn’t just get there overnight. Those were conditions that had been building for some time, and it became painfully obvious while I was there that I would be competing with my fellow soldiers for the staff’s attention.

The treatment of soldiers has come into question as well. How were you treated?

Let’s put it this way: On my first day there, I was asked if I wanted inpatient or outpatient treatment. This was less than a week after I’d been shot in the head.

Another Hurricane Katrina, indeed.

Video via [Crooks & Liars]
Link via [Metro]

Fare thee well, Cingular brand

The freshly-redesigned AIGA has a touching goodbye to the Cingular "Jack" logo:

Jack and the Cingular brand identity contrasted with other phone brands. According to Koval, its competitors “were about all about [airtime] minutes and sound quality. We made it about linking and communication and self-expression. We wanted a human symbol and made it a character.” When Jack arrived, mobile phone logos “were stiff and bold and italicized, red and blue. We took a totally different approach—soft and lowercase and orange. ” Jack’s replacement is the blue marble, the kinder, gentler AT&T globe logo introduced in 2005. The maker of the marble, which replaced the previous, two-decade-old AT&T logo, is the firm Interbrand, whose parent company wears the sinister Hollywood moniker Omnicom. That original orb, by Saul Bass, was nicknamed the “Death Star” as soon as it arrived on the scene in 1985. But that was because AT&T was already seen as an empire, not the lethal weapon menacing Princess Leia’s republic. AT&T is an old-line company, with roots in the 19th century—a company, after all, that still has the word “telegraph” embedded somewhere behind its initials.

Link: [ Bell System Memorial ]
Wikipedia: [ Cingular Wireless ]

Wherein the Philadelphia Mayor's race is decided with a Battle of the Bands

Gospel Crooner Milton Street:





Punk Rocker Larry West:







Ok... this Larry West kid is a guy I can get behind based on enthusiasm alone.



Well... that and the haircut.

FUCK YES LARRY WEST

Links via [Philly Will Do & Live From...]

T. Milton Street: The "T" stands for "Tirade"

I came back from Milton Street's "rally" (read: small get-together) in front of City Hall about an hour ago. I still have no coherent words or thoughts from what I saw there.



For those of you who refuse to follow politics (or maybe just aren't interested in Philly politics), T. Milton Street is Mayor John Street's crazy older brother. He's decided that he's going to run for mayor in a race that already has like a dozen candidates in it already. He's also decided that he's going to say and do all the comically insensitive and outlandish things that politicians AVOID doing if they're going to run for public office. This guy has been in the limelight of the mayor's race for maybe two weeks now, and already he's calling opponents "Watermelon Man", gotten arrested for years-old parking ticket violations, and the list goes on and on. I could list all of his wacky missteps, but instead I'll just let you peruse the archives of the world's preeminent Milton Street analyst / historian, D-Mac over at PhillyWillDo.

Some choice statistics from today's event, courtesy of D-Mac:

2: Number of members of the reggae band that was supposed to perform that were killed this morning, according Milton Street
1: Number of hecklers who yelled "You're going to jail, Milton"
1: Times Milton Street returned fire against the "white people heckling me over there"

To call this rally a circus would be accurate, except for the fact that people usually come out to see the circus by the thousands. And, even though he promised he wouldn't run unless 5,000 people came out to this event, Street of course went back on that when it was clear that no more than 200 curious onlookers and a couple of news helicopters were going to make it today. He said God was telling him to continue on, likening his struggle to that of Jesus' toil in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights. This, of course, was AFTER he drug a casket out onto the stage and launched into song in the middle of his rambling, hour-long speech.

You're sure to see a replay tonight on TV, as every media outlet in town was there gathering up the precious footage to chuckle at on the evening news. Even WIP, the sports-talk station, was there asking people what they thought about the whole thing. It's good for a laugh, if nothing else, and you might even see some B-roll with me in the back of the crowd, looking dumbfounded.

Links and pictures via [Philly Will Do]

Edit: Forgot to mention that I saw the Inquirer's Peter Mucha there doing his "Live From..." blog. Here are the entries (typically short and unfiltered) he posted while walking through the crowd with his laptop caddy attached to his torso: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8