Apparently, the RIAA wants to start charging radio stations for access to music. I guess without payola going on, there isn’t as much of an incentive to give away content, plus it’s hard to argue that internet stations need to be paying crazy rates, when they are giving away the content to their terrestrial cousins.
Since the NAB would obviously suffer from having to actually pay for their music, they decided to take a cheap shot at the RIAA by going after where they are vulnerable. Instead of making the RIAA defend the price increase, they are instead raising the question of whether or not that money will end up going back to the artists. It obviously won’t because the studios have a well documented history of taking full advantage of the artists that they promote, but it still puts the RIAA on the defensive over the legislative issues that they are proposing. If the NAB is successful, you could even see the RIAA back away from this, before they would be willing to better compensate their artists. I’ve always hated politics, but I can still appreciate an evil stroke of genius when I see it.
Davis Freeberg is a technology enthusiast living in the Bay Area. He enjoys writing about movies, music, and the impact that digital technology is having on traditional media. Catch more his musings at www.davisfreeberg.com.