RIAA Attacks FM Radio Stations Over Property Violations
Perhaps I have lived under a rock for several years, but this somewhat vicious attack surprised me. I have been under the impression that radio stations generally compensate music publishers via royalty payments under ASCAP and BMI agreements, which, according to Wikipedia, were about $176 million in 2004. Also, we should not forget the "other" form of payment, which is the marketing of new music over the air that entices people to actually buy music.
However, it appears that the RIAA hopes that FM radio stations just go away. "Every platform in the industrialized world respects property rights but one – terrestrial radio in the U.S," said Mitch Bainwol, Chairman and CEO of the RIAA. The comment was made in a press release that supports a bill that opposes a government mandate that FM radio chips should be built into mobile devices such as smartphone or tablets.
The press release of the RIAA appears to be a declaration of war to terrestrial radio stations as there is an allegation of basically stealing music. According to the RIAA, it is essential that new technology always has to fairly compensate artists and innovators and this balance is critical to a global technology leadership. I won't go into an argument whether the RIAA is really representing the interests of artists or just the well-being of music publishers, but I have to admit that I am a bit confused by Bainwol's sharp wording and the contradicting fact that radio stations have always paid royalties for the music they play. The RIAA said that more than 150 musicians have asked Congress to support a resolution that would ban a government mandate of FM chips. I am not quite sure if I can follow the reasoning here.
Whether such a mandate makes sense or not, I do question the RIAA's motivation and attempt to create a distortion field around the fact that it has more control over digital streaming services than over traditional radio services and may see a greater revenue opportunity in the digital world. Starting a fight over silly FM chips in digital devices is rather dumb - I personally would actually love to have such a chip in my phone, given the fact that wireless carriers are drastically reducing the available bandwidth for their services.
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F the RIAA and any word that has those letters in it.
Oh Gosh.. When they will stop?
Its simple really.
When a streaming music service such as Pandora plays a song, the RIAA gets a payment for each account that plays the song. When a radio station plays it, they get one payment and millions potentially get to listen.
Of course they hate the idea of you being able to listen to FM on your smartphone instead of streaming, less licensing $$ for them.
RIAA and SABAM... the true mafia!
Oh Gosh.. When they will stop?
It seriously just won't, until they disappear.
When they have convinced congress to force you to install a chip in your head that automatically debits your checking account everytime you hear music.
Legislation would be much more useful if it would instead ban the RIAA.
Next they'll want a licence fee for ethernet cabling... because you could use one to copy music.
Heck, why stop there? You can write music on paper, so why not add a music-piracy fee to paper? And pens/pencils as well!
I pledge to never again pay for any music. They will stop when they all file for chapter 11.
its interesting, the RIAA seems to think that not only its owed more money than actually exists, now they seem to think playing music is pirating it, I wonder what moronic dinosaur of copyright lawsuit they'll dredge up with their greedy cash snatching hands. Probably putting ban on speakers above a certain decibel range so that unpaid customers cannot hear new music. I wouldn't be surprised if they gave unsigned iou's to beggars in the street to save change.
RIAA = Music Industry Nazzis
I have a great proposal: Radio stations should play only non-RIAA licensed music. After a couple of months let's see who will win and who will loose from this situation. I bet RIAA would come back and beg them to play their content...
The RIAA can't see past their own greed. Attacking FM radio won't help the music industry at all....quite to the contrary. It would more likely lead to the death of the music industry in the US...
So, phones in the US will be the only ones without an AM/FM chip on them thanks to the RIAA? ROFL! Moreover, I thought by now every phone in the world supported ol'school radio. wow...
You guys should do something about those trolls.
Cheers!
So basically now RIAA is picking a fight with all fm radio stations.. Do they not see how this could turn out real bad for them. The old saying bad publicity is better then none doesn't really apply here. As it's best if most people don't know what these guys are about. But now I can see radio stations slamming these guys, and potentially even organizing their listeners to do something.
We all know the politicians are all out for themselves, and eventually it's gonna become more beneficial to them to also not back the RIAA in anything they do.
End of the day I think RIAA just shot themselves in the foot, but only time well tell.
They forget that BitTorrent is one of the biggest platforms and it doesn't pay royalites.
They can get a big GET F***KED from me (and f*** the profanity filter on this forum while I'm at it for deleting my last post!)
lol...they've gone bonkers because they they can't win...we 0wn your interwebz
More and more FM stations are going to News/Talk formats, I guess they want to encourage more of that and less of their clients' trash being publicized.
Eventually Sony, BMG, and all the rest will have the music all to themselves and you can't even hear it. Then they'll be happy. I'm all for making them happy as soon as possible.
My sonyericcson has a radio, and I wished my laptop had a radio receiver too!
Radio is the best form of advertising that the RIAA has, without radio the music industry will die! The RIAA is nothing more than organized crime. Extortion being their biggest money maker.....
to quote Brian from Family Guy "Oh Just Die already"
What is radio? Is that like that fuzzy stuff with crappy music playing when I accidentally turn off my cd player?
Its simple really.When a streaming music service such as Pandora plays a song, the RIAA gets a payment for each account that plays the song. When a radio station plays it, they get one payment and millions potentially get to listen.Of course they hate the idea of you being able to listen to FM on your smartphone instead of streaming, less licensing $$ for them.
True, but the payoff from a radio station will be bigger than that from a single Pandora a/c. This is just another MAFIAA tactic.
On another hand, maybe now there will be less radio chatter....
Stopping the radio is really stepping over the boundaries. Apart that radio is used the traditional way, listening to music, but even if it was torrent-like pirate, that piracy would be ONE of the ways to use the device. Just as banning cars because one of the ways to use it is to run over people. I join the trend of "Die RIAA, DIE!!!" and I hope some politicians see sense in it, but politicians are rich b*s*a*d* that will go for what fills their pockets more, if possible to turn every human to an ant supporting them, they would, bigbrother and chinese-like control of life including. So, it's up to the voters to give RIAA the finger and show them who's boss, especially when laws are involved. If RIAA decides to close up their "property", including increasing fees to radio stations because there are more radio chips around, it's up to them. There are a lot of artists that enjoy what they do and do it for the good of all (open-source-artists
). If these artists later after gaining a bit of popularity decide to go with RIAA (are bought by them), well, let them go make music for the sake of money, there will always be plenty of other artists that will want to give away their talents for enjoyment of arts, or other ways of revenue that google is very active about. Problem with this is that the rich b*s*a*d* might, or rather will sue them for any hypothetical similarity, that even if not existent will make it hard to impossible for the free artists to cope with the legal system. So, it will become "be part of them or don't use your artistic skills at all", which is wrong, but which is what very likely will happen. So, truly, thought it through, the RIAA needs to cease to exist, the sooner, the better. Artists can live without the 3rd pool in their mansion (south park making fun of metallica, but mostly true), but artists can't fully live if the pressure of RIAA is there.
Does anyone actually listen to the radio anymore? I stopped many, many years ago. Stopped watching tv too. Thinking about it, I hope they DO stop playing music on the radio, maybe the RIAA will die a quicker death. I'm sure the stations wouldn't go for this however, as they use the music to get people to listen and sell advertising. There's too much money in it for them to stop. I'm sure they'll pay whatever fee needs to be paid to continue to be under the nazi's heel.
So by that statement "every platform respects rights but FM" they implied that P2P is alright? Misspoken there, RIAA. Maybe you should go away.
Oh the joy of using music stores in russia - reasonable prices, good quality and not based on drm or constant connectivity - fm or otherwise.
FM radio existed for about a century, why only now do they complain.
I am just dumb founded by the RIAA. If I did not hate you for obvious reasons before, this action is just a plain, imo, a act of war against music no matter how it is listened to or obtained. Really FM broadcasts? The naziesque way you go after individuals who download music, some of whom you falsely accused, was not enough? Well I am just one person so I know it won't matter but the hell with it. You declared it, so be it. ITS WAR!!
Why on Earth would the
I absolutely cannot think of a reason why every mobile device should required to have an FM receiver (and not an AM receiver).
Unless, of course, they finally implement nationwide mind-control and it's transmitted via FM waves. Where did I put my tinfoil hat?
So if I play my radio at a party and say 30 people can hear it does that mean I've just commited 30 acts of piracy? Oh crap I have 300 + songs of AIC Metallica Nirvana etc etc, does that mean in a given night I've committed 9000 acts of Piracy? Oh no I just realized Cortney loves suing people for playing anything by Curt now I got another lawsuit.
F the RIAA and any word that has those letters in it.
What's wrong with railroads?