Inspired by the fun I had with RFB #9 (.nam daed ,no em nruT) I fell down the ephemeral audio rabbit hole on Sunday night, and was up until nearly three in the morning picking up all sorts of strange and wonderful audio for . . . well, I'm not quite sure what for, exactly. I may put together an RFB that's basically a mixtape with weird-o audio on it, similar to those cassettes we used to trade in the 80s, but I'm not sure if I'd be able to release it, because of copyright issues.
If you're into that sort of thing, I highly recommend starting your quest at WFMU's Beware of the Blog, and more specifically, their 365 Days project . . . but if you're into strange, unique, and just plain weird stuff, don't go there until you have a few hours and a couple of gigs to burn.
Speaking of audio on the Internets, and unique things that you'd never hear in the mainstream, today is a Day of Silence for Internet Radio. I'll let Tim from Pandora give the details:
Ignoring all rationality and responding only to the lobbying of the RIAA, an arbitration committee in Washington DC has drastically increased the licensing fees Internet radio sites must pay to stream songs. Pandora's fees will triple, and are retroactive for eighteen months! Left unchanged by Congress, every day will be like today as internet radio sites start shutting down and the music dies.
A bill called the "Internet Radio Equality Act" has already been introduced in both the Senate (S. 1353) and House of Representatives (H.R. 2060) to fix the problem and save Internet radio--and Pandora--from obliteration.
I'd like to ask you to call your Congressional representatives today and ask them to become co-sponsors of the bill. It will only take a few minutes and you can find your Congresspersons and their phone numbers by entering your zip code here.
And Bill from Radio Paradise says:
Don't believe the record industry propaganda that says that Internet radio is trying to deprive artists and labels of fair royalty payments. Under the legislation we're supporting, we would still be paying a higher royalty rate than any other class of broadcaster in the US.
As I said in a recent Geek in Review: this isn't about the RIAA (via Sound Exchange) protecting artists. It's about protecting a monopoly that has made the big labels who are the RIAA and a handful of broadcasters very, very rich. It's about preventing individuals like us from using the level playing field afforded to us all by the technological innovations of the last decade. This has never been about protecting artists. It's about limiting choice, and that's just wrong.
Please take a moment today to contact your congresscritter and ask them to support HR2060 or S1353. Only we can save internet radio, and spare our children the horror of living in a world where top 40 radio prevails.
