ihoby wog

I would like to urge you to vote against financial burdens being imposed upon Internet Radio Broadcasters. It has recently come to my attention that airwave radio stations are exempt from royalties or such from the record companies, on the basis that they provide Promotional Value. As Internet Radio actually provides more Promotional Value than airwave radio – listed in the following ways below – I see NO reason why Internet Broadcasters should be targeted for payments of any kind to the record companies. If anything, the record companies should be paying the Internet Radio stations for promoting their artists.

The ways Internet Radio provides superior Promotional Value over airwave radio:

1. it can be listened to world-wide
2. it can include full Artist, Title and other information of the currently playing song
3. it can include a link to BUY the album from which the song originates

Other ways Internet Radio (IR) is just better than airwave radio:

4. IR stations most often play nothing but music, no talking and no advertisements
5. IR stations play an extremely wide, eclectic range of music
6. IR stations are not in it for money, they broadcast for free because they love music
7. IR stations allow artists to be heard that wouldn’t normally be able to be broadcast
8. IR stations can bridge political and cultural divides the same way that web pages can

Internet Radio is a beautiful thing the way it is. It’s active, it’s diverse, it can expand people’s minds. It’s freedom. It’s auditory freedom. What the record companies are trying to do is remove our freedom from Internet Radio and replace it with greed. Doing so will only spoil its beauty, it will become repulsive and dictated. This country was founded on freedom, yes? I personally do not want my freedom to be turned into a dictatorship.

In closing, I’d like re-state that Internet Radio provides superior value and promotional value over other radio delivery methods for everyone involved (artists, publishers, broadcasters and listeners) and should be kept free from needlessly imposed charges. Forcing money from stations that aren’t making money from broadcasting will kill them. Please don’t allow this to happen. Keep creativity, diversity and the love of music alive.