09.19
World HQ.
The sun is shining, the sky is blue I…
II…
Tractors…
Compost…
Above my head, ProjeKct One is whirring, twerning & squerning along. Whirr. Twern. Squern.
Bookkeeper Nicky came in the back door, via the DGM Tractor, Compost & Parking Lot, at 08.30. Alex arrived shortly before nine. I was ahead of the game, rising at 06.30. What a hero.
09.21 David is in the door.
10.28 The morning’s focus of attention for me: publishing information promised a month ago has not.
Also, an arising of the day, is an ongoing discussion with an internet radio station that has been displaying KC music, legitimate & bootleg. So, of relevance…
Royalties threaten internet radio
By Rory Cellan-Jones, Technology correspondent, BBC News
Internet radio stations are warning they could be forced off the air by a big increase in the royalties they pay to play music. The warning comes after a decision by a US copyright body to increase royalty payments for music via the net. Commercial webcasters in the US now face the prospect of paying more than twice as much for every track they play…
The founder of Pandora, which is based in Oakland California, has e-mailed all the station’s users warning them that the service may not survive. Tim Westergren called the rise in royalties a "terribly ill-conceived attempt to crush a powerful and positive grassroots movement that is sweeping across the music world".
It is a decision by the Copyright Royalty Board, a US body, which has caused the panic…
Last.fm, an interactive music service based in London that has 15 million users worldwide, is also worried by the American ruling. The founders of the service say that internet radio is only one part of what it offers but they are concerned by what is happening in the US. "The US is one of our strongest markets," says Martin Stiksel of Last.fm. "We are competing with unlicensed services and this makes it almost commercially unworkable. Users are being driven away from licenced services that are trying to do the right thing."…
Published: 2007/03/08 13:12:58 GMT
© BBC MMVII
"We’re competing with unlicensed services" - said Martin Stiksel of Last.fm.
The argument -we’re paying something & thieves are paying nothing - doesn’t confer legitimacy on an operation. At Bootleg.tv we were told that we failed, because the company was based on the notion that artists owned their copyrights & this was to be honoured. Probably, the comment is accurate. Our own concern, in principle, is that internet radio stations (and various other comparable operations) set up well before they are licensed to do so; and/or before they have payment structures agreed, or in place, for the material used.
The strategy seems to be: get business going by using catalogues of copyright
material, prior to negotiating payment to copyright owners/providers, but post advertising revenue driven by the use of copyright material. That is, artists don’t really feature much in the business plan, but use of their work does.
11.00 The Furore Of P1 – the first night is ripping & burning upstairs.
16.03 Our contributions to Robert Miles’ tracks are drifting along the corridor from SoundWorld I, where Alex is preparing rough mixes. There is some very good playing here, in several very different moods.
Much of today-stuff has been spent addressing collection of publishing royalties in the US. Has it been collected? Has it not been collected? How much has/has not been collected in the US? The problem is, we just don’t know because we haven’t got the information. And this over a six year period.
17.23 Dribble.
Final correspondence of the day to Crafties with authentic concerns, shortly to load the car & drive home to the Minx.
Yippee!
"Playing fast is easier than playing slow."
