The Music Industry

So, we have someone supporting Internet radio broadcasters.

After the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) decided to drastically increase the royalties paid to musicians and record labels for streaming songs online, National Public Radio (NPR) will begin fighting the decision on Friday, March 16 by filing a petition for reconsideration with the CRB panel. The suggested new rates would increase to $.0008 per-play for 2006 (retroactively), $.0011 for 2007, $.0014 in 2008, $.0018 in 2009 and $.0019 for 2010, which could put some Internet broadcasters out of business and force public radio stations to quit streaming online.

So what does this mean for the artists creating the music? Absolutely nothing!! It’s a misconception that artists make their money off the sale of their music. This happens to only a few artists. Unfortunately for every artist who actually makes money off sale of his/her albums, there are 10 who see very little money from the sale of their albums. They make their money from concerts and concerts alone.

The music industry is a cut throat business. That’s another misconception!! The creation aspect of the music industry is a cut throat business. The distribution and sale of the music is another issue all together. The sale is controlled by RIAA and RIAA alone. They are the ones who govern over what artist to back, what the sale points should be, how the album released by an artist is to be distributed and, yes, what the cost price should be for the album.

And that’s why piracy exists. If the sale price of a music CD was under $10/-, there would not have been minimal piracy. If the sale points (on-line and on shelf) and sale controls (free of DRM) were deregulated, the competition would have ensured that it’s the artists who get rich. And not the fat cats of music industry.

This issue affects Internet Radio Broadcaster only. Not the people whose music everyone is fighting for. They are an ignored lot.