Take a Deep Cleansing Breath

There are several things that we really ought to be discussing. And if you've been following me on Twitter we may have already discussed some of them. One thing about the 140 character limit, discussions are short and sweet. But some things need more than 140 characters.

We really ought to be discussing the disastrous economic outlook. Thing are not getting better. In fact they are getting much, much worse. The Economic Stimulus Package is not working... at all. Of course we should not be surprised. The Pelosi package was absolutely the single worst piece of legislation ever passed by Congress up to that time. Of course no Congress Person ever read it, so what should we have expected.

How bad is the economy? Just look at what Warren Buffet had to say this week:

The world's second richest man, veteran investor Warren Buffet, has given a blunt assessment of the state of the United States economy - it's still in a shambles. In an interview with US business television channel CNBC, Buffet said that he doubts whether the economy has made much progress since May, when he declared the economy was at war. "I get figures on 70-odd businesses, a lot of them daily," Buffet said. "Everything that I see about the economy is that we've had no bounce."

We really ought to discuss the economy, but it is just too damn depressing.

We ought to be discussing The Waxman-Markey Energy Bill or Cap and Trade and Pork as it should be called. Up until today students of modern government had believed it was impossible to pass a worse piece of legislation than the Pelosi Stimulus Bill. It appears they were wrong. Once again the House, under Pelosi's non-existent leadership has passed a disastrous bill without reading it. That's right folks, not one single Member of Congress read this bill before passing it.

I want a job where I can simply not do the work! And when things go bad, I can avoid all blame. But I digress.

We really ought to be discussing the recent Supreme Court Rulings, all of which were excellent. Most important was the landmark ruling that guaranteed a defendant could face and cross-examine his accusers in court, even if that accuser was a laboratory technician or forensic scientist. Please take a few minutes and listen to this excellent report by National Public Radio and then we'll discuss this further. Maybe.

I can hardly wait to Sonia Sotomayor to join the High Court. She will be an excellent addition.

We ought to be discussing the death of local radio. Fortunately, Jerry Del Colliano has done this for us. Please read his rather frightening and eye popping analysis. And do join us on Twitter to discuss this further.

There are so many things we need to be discussing. But.... let's just take a deep breath, cool down and fight off this summer heat wave and listen to some excellent music by the wonderful Regina Spektor.

This Apologizing Crap is (Almost) Out of Control

Don Imus, you are one "nappy headed ho." There I said it! I mean Christ, you have got to do something about your hair! It's out of control!

And your latest whoring, this time for RFD-TV mogul Patrick Gottsch is disgusting. Man, the guy can't even manage to sell a single commercial to sponsor your show! If I have to sit through one more slobbering love tribute from you to Mr. Gottsch , I'm gonna be sick. Get a frakking room!

Opps! That was over the line,wasn't it? I guess I better apologize before the Imus fanatics boycott my blog. And death threats can't be far behind. Sorry, Don. I apologize. You really still are the great radio personality you once were. And you do wear a hat, so it's all good. Okay?

In all semi-seriousness, this not offending people thing is simply out of control! Everyone has to be so careful, they almost can't talk, let alone editorialize. And satire.... forget about it.

It's a world wide trend and, tragically, many countries are actually putting it into law. Canada is totally out of control, with many bloggers facing impossible lawsuits for offending someone.

Italy, Spain and virtually all countries with large Islamic populations have strong laws against offending religion, but usually that only means Islam.

Here in the good old U.S. of A. we have one special interest group after another demanding apologies, firing and worse.

So when radio personality Randi Rhodes makes a wild, expletive filled rant about Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro, she is forced to apologize or lose her job. To her credit Rhodes quit rather than apologize (and has since found a new radio home for her far left wing talk fest).

Don Imus, of course lost his job and was exiled from radio for six months or more, before finally bringing back a highly sanitized version of his program, this time with two black co-hosts to keep him out of trouble.

Bill Maher's rant about the Catholic Church and the Pope was terribly funny, but far enough over the line that HBO was forced under pressure from Catholics to demand Maher apologize. And he did, sort of.

Of course you will absolutely never hear Maher take on Islam the way he attacks Christianity. Maher nibbles around the edges, but I don't think he wants to risk a fatwa.

And that is a shame. We've got to fight as hard for our right of "FREE SPEECH" as other special interest groups fight to protect their so-calling image or good name.

When the demand that we "never offend" one group or religion, you can easily end up with the kind of out of control mob violence now going on in India at Ranchi University where riots have closed the University because a history professor offended Islam by wording a final exam essay question in a way that was unflattering to the Prophet Mohammad. Links here, here and here.

So easily offended is the Islamic population that the major newspapers in India won't even reprint the question in question. It was something about the tracing the life of Mohammad from "trader to raider." It was an Islamic history class.

By the way, if you'd like to read an extremely funny rant, I point you the newest Internet blogging sensation, Rachel Lucas and her terrific If I were Temporary Supreme Dictator of America. Then read her massive apology the very next day (yes, it's a real apology after outrage from her readers) Bold new blogging horizons: I deconstruct my very own post.

This is the kind of shit that happens when you get really popular. A problem that, alas, I will never have.

I promise that those two posts will brighten your entire day.

Microhooey!!

Thinking about Microsoft's proposed buyout of Yahoo.....

I've written previously about past tragic buyouts in the computer and Internet industry. In fact I'm hard pressed to think of even one acquisition that has served users, employees, stockholders or the industry well.

Innovation is inevitably killed in workforce reductions and assimilations. For some reason failed managers are placed in charge of the brilliant developers and marketeers that the acquiring parent had hoped to exploit. Of course the founders and top managers of the acquired companies usually take the money and run.

Creativity dies a slow and torturous death.

One of the worst examples I've previously cited was the purchase of MusicMatch (the mp3 music jukebox company) by Yahoo themselves. MusicMatch had created one of the most user friendly, platform friendly, and trouble free programs ever created. They had been rewarded with customer loyalty, industry awards and a rapidly growing market share.

Yahoo was struggling with a poorly written, buggy program rightfully ignored by most music afficionados and computer users. So, in 2004, Yahoo acquired MusicMatch for $160 million dollars. Makes sense, right?

Wrong. In a few short years they destroyed MusicMatch making it's successor program Yahoo Music one of the worst, buggiest, non-working programs in history. Yahoo's corporate bureaucracy at first ignored MusicMatch's programmers that they micro managed the innovation to death. Here's just one of thousands of blog and magazine articles on the debacle from WIRED MAGAZINE. Here's another one.

Everybody lost. Yahoo's investment was wasted. Users lost a great program. Employees lost their jobs, And innovation was smothered to death.

Yahoo has repeated this program dozens of times. If they've had a "successful" acquisition, I'm not aware of it.

In fact, Yahoo has so consistently wasted their resources that they have squandered their industry leading position and their mammoth stock price (and corporate value) so that Microsoft can acquire them for a mere song (pardon the pun), a tiny fraction of the value of the company just a few years ago.

But nobody has destroyed more companies and stifled more innovation than Microsoft. While 41 BILLION DOLLARS looks like a bargain today, when Microsoft's rigid bureaucracy chews up and spits out Yahoo, don't expect a dime's worth of value to be left.

The technology blogosphere is almost universally opposed to this acquisition. A great place to start reading is Farhad Manjoo's series of articles over at Salon.com.

Losers

I'm going to keep this post extremely short because I've noticed that my continuous posts concerning the current Royalties battles between the Recording Industry Association of American (RIAA) and the various radio broadcasters puts most of my readers soundly to sleep.

But, for those of you who might be interested in the single most unfair abuse of power in Washington today let me simply refer you to today's issue of Radio and Internet News (RAIN)'s analysis of current events: CRB denies SX for more satellite money, but where's fairness for webcasters?

The bottom line? The Copyright Royalty Board (an agency of the US Government and an appointed board created by Congress) has granted an absolutely sweetheart deal to the monopoly of satellite radio, Sirius and XM Radio.

Without any competition and on the verge of merger, Sirius and XM are securely in the pocket of the RIAA, ignoring independent artists and following the hit making, payola laced, guidelines of the major record labels.

What does satellite radio bring to the table in return for the bargain basement royalty deal? Two companies, perhaps a half dozen program directors, no competition and no innovation.

Meanwhile Internet Radio which used to offer over 10,000 stations and 10,000 program directors and all the innovation and all the support for new, emerging and independent artists is forced by the same Copyright Royalty Board to pay royalty rates so high stations are now going off the air or into bankruptcy at an alarming rate.

Who are the "Losers" referred to in the title of today's post? The pubic, of course. Music lovers. Independent artists. Society in general. Exactly the people Congress is "supposed" to serve and protect.

Please read Paul Maloney's complete article in RAIN.

Left Hand... Have you seen the Right Hand lately?

I've said over and often that their simply isn't any industry in America with less marketing ability, less technological savvy, less consumer awareness or less common sense that the Music Industry. But these two recent events are simply too weird to even imagine.

On one hand (lets call this one the right hand) we have a most amazing breakthrough from the Warner Music Group. Warner, after a decade of leading the fight against digital music, has actually agreed to place their entire catalog of onver one half million songs on Amazon in the totally unrestricted mp3 format, long despised by the music industry.

Warner joins Universal and EMI, bringing the total number of tracks available on Amazon to 2.9 million. 2.9 million!!

There are no silly DRM (digital rights management) restrictions on the Amazon tracks. No limits to the number of CD's you can burn or the mixture of tracks. And, most important, there are no compatibility issues. An Amazon mp3 track plays on virtually every device sold today.

This means there are absolutely no restrictions on the tracks purchased through Amazon. You can burn them to CD's, make custom mixes of tunes, transfer them to your iPod and to any other mp3 player. You can download them to a computer and then transfer them to other computers. No restrictions! You are actually allowed to enjoy the music you legally purchased at home, in the office, at the beach or in your car.

Warner Music Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Edgar Bronfman Jr. explained the decision this way:

In an e-mail obtained by The Associated Press and distributed to Warner employees Thursday, Bronfman noted that selling downloads without DRM would help
spur new types of online music applications and foster competition among online retailers.

"By removing a barrier to the sale and enjoyment of audio downloads, we bring an energy-sapping debate to a close and allow ourselves to refocus on opportunities and products that will benefit not only WMG, but our artists and
our consumers as well," Bronfman wrote.

Warner was the last holdout among the majors. Now ever label sells DRM FREE tracks somewhere, some via iTunes and others on their own web site.

Life is good.

But... on the other hand (let's call this one the left hand) the Recording Industry Association of America's (the RIAA) lawyers have now filed a lawsuit claiming that it is illegal to copy music from any legally purchased CD onto any device, anytime, anywhere or in any format!

Here is the news as reported by The Washington Post:

In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.

The industry's lawyer in the case, Ira Schwartz, argues in a brief filed earlier this month that the MP3 files Howell made on his computer from legally bought CDs are "unauthorized copies" of copyrighted recordings.

Clearly the left hand is totally unaware of what the right hand is up to. The left hand is in court attempting to convince a judge that a consumer cannot ever make any copy of any legally purchased recording. No copying to the computer. No copying to an iPod. No copying to an mp3 player. All copies are illegal.

If the RIAA wins this lawsuit, it will wipe out the entire digital music industry and end competition and innovation. In other words the RIAA might defeat everything Warner Music is trying to accomplish.

The CRB Drives Another Nail Into the Coffin

The details of the Copyright Royalty Board's decision on royalties to be paid by the Satellite Radio came pouring out today, setting up a three level royalty system that insures the death of Internet Radio.

You can read Reuter's full report here: Sirius, XM Royalties Set

But here is the bottom line. The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) of the U.S. Library of Congress set royalties for Satellite Radio's music playing channels at 6 percent of gross revenues for 2007 and 2008, 6.5 percent for 2009, 7 percent for 2010, 7.5 percent for 2011 and 8 percent for 2012.

While that may sound high it's a tiny fraction of the rates the very same Copyright Royalty Board imposed in Internet Radio.

In fact, in the ultimate insult, the CRB specifically rejected the virtually identical proposal from the Internet Radio Broadcasters, then they turned around and presented these reasonable and livable rates to a virtual radio monopoly, the soon to merge XM and Sirius companies.

Why?

No one, least of all the CRB, can explain this outrageous action.

As an end result we have a three tier cost system for radio broadcasting. On the low end of the scale you have AM and FM radio who pay NOTHING!!! All music is gifted to AM and FM's corporate giants at no charge what-so-ever.

Then you have Satellite Radio who will pay a high, but manageable, 6 to 8 percent of revenues for the identical sound recording being gifted to AM and FM radio.

Finally you have Internet Radio who must pay rates often in excess of 100% of revenues for the same recordings.

Advertisers and subscribers support all three formats of radio at virtually identical revenue rates, which is, of course, logical. Major advertisers like Phillip Morris or General Motors aren't going to pay more per listener for the privilege of having their ads on Internet radio than they will pay for Satellite or conventional AM and FM radio.

Internet Radio, straddled by the competition of AM and FM and Satellite Radio, cannot arbitrarily raise its ad rates. They'll get what the market will get. And AM and FM radio, with no sound recording royalties to pay at all, can artificially keep ad rates low.

Meanwhile Internet Radio cannot pay the royalties awarded by the CRB in one of the most discriminatory rulings in history. There simply is no excuse for an agency of the U.S. Government to willfully and purposely drive an entire industry out of business in favor of it's competitors.

Will Congress finally act, as it has long threatened? We do urge you to continue to write your Congress member and keep him or her informed.

The Sounds of Silence

Bloomberg News reported stunning news this week about Internet Radio that shook up the business community and political circles, not to mention the rapidly growing legions of Internet Radio listeners: both AOL and Yahoo are on the verge of shuttering their Internet Radio operations!

This isn't news at all to radio industry insiders who had predicted that the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) bizarre royalty demands made it totally impossible for any Internet Radio operation to ever break even, let alone make a profit. The RIAA has demanded huge per listener/per song royalties that literally mean the more listeners Internet Radio attracts, the greater the financial losses.

Imagine if some group owned a copyright on hamburger buns and they demanded that McDonalds lose 5 cents on every hamburger sold, regardless of price or sales volume. Obviously McDonalds would react by closing their restaurants!

This is exactly what the RIAA has done. And yet they are "shocked" that AOL and Yahoo would consider closing their radio stations. Bloomberg reports:

Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Yahoo! Inc. and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL unit may shut down their Web radio services after being hit with a 38 percent increase in royalties to air music. "We're not going to stay in the business if cost is more than we make long term," Ian Rogers, general manager at Yahoo's music unit, said in an interview. Yahoo and AOL stopped directing users to their radio sites after SoundExchange, the Washington-based group representing artists and record labels, began collecting the higher fees in July. Those royalties may stifle the growth of Internet radio, which increased listeners 39 percent in the past year, according to researcher ComScore Inc. in Reston, Virginia. Radio sites have been "dealt a severe blow," said Jeffrey Lindsay, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York, "It seems very unlikely that at this stage a solution will be reached." Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, California, is promoting a music service offering videos and songs for sale rather than its Launchcast, the largest Web radio site, Rogers said. As a result, the number of people using Launchcast fell 11 percent to 5.1 million in October, according to ComScore. AOL Radio users declined 10 percent to 2.7 million from 3 million. "The current math doesn't add up,'' said Lisa Namerow, managing director of AOL Radio in Dulles, Virginia. "If the rates remain as they are, it would be very challenging to sustain a business that is profitable.'' "We're really re-examining the radio model," AOL's Namerow said. "Shutting down the business is a possibility if Webcasters and the music industry don't come to an agreement."

It remains terribly unclear why the RIAA wants to kill Internet Radio. One thought is that the major labels want total control over the industry, forcing independents and unsigned artists off the air. Others believe that the big labels simply don't understand the medium and equate Internet Radio with file sharing. Still others see Internet radio as the stalking horse for future battles with AM and FM radio who pay no artist royalties what-so-ever and never have.

Regardless of the reason, the very existence of Internet Radio is threatened.

Here are some simple math facts. Yahoo's Internet Radio operation, the largest in the world, expects advertising revenue to rise 4.7 percent to $45 million in 2008. That sounds good doesn't it?

Except, the RIAA demanded royalties would increase 19 percent this year. An impossible financial burden. Moore importantly, if Yahoo actually increased listeners, the usual solution to increased costs, the royalties would rise even higher..... much higher.

Increased listeners are actually the enemy. Hence all Internet Radio operations, including Yahoo and AOL, have stopped advertising or promoting their services and have created bizarre listener caps and automatic shut downs to reduce active listeners.

The only hope is that Congress will step in and demand reasonable royalty rates. At this point Internet Radio operators would like to settle for the exact same rates already granted by the RIAA to Sirius Satellite Radio earlier this month.

The question remains as to why the RIAA wants Internet Radio to pay so much more than satellite radio. It is interesting to note that satellite radio plays virtually no independent and unsigned artists. The bland blend of music available via satellite is virtually all big record label controlled.

$23.76 versus $222,000.00

Well here's a bit of bad news for those of us who have fought so long and hard for sensibility and intelligence in the music recording industry: A jury in Duluth, Minnesota has awarded the major recording companies (Sony BMG, Arista Records LLC, Interscope Records, UMG Recordings Inc., Capitol Records Inc. and Warner Bros. Records Inc.) a total of $222,000 for the illegal file sharing of 24 copyrighted recordings from the above mentioned labels.

Curiously enough last night I logged onto my Napster account (the new, legal Napster) and downloaded 24 tracks and burned them to a mix CD. My cost was $23.76.

The music industry, primarily the RIAA, hopes that everyone gets the message. $23.76 is a whole lot cheaper than $222,000.00!

Unfortunately my fear is that this will only encourage the RIAA and its members to continue their long standing attitude of treating their customers as if they are mortal enemies instead of the only real source of income they actually have.

This lawsuit may actually encourage the music industry to continue to make the legal purchase of music difficult, confusing, and frequently impossible. The music industry and their bizarre legal restrictions drive more consumers to illegal downloading than any other single factor.

Let's examine my purchase last night as an example. I have for a few weeks wanted to purchase a number of tunes I've heard on the radio. The first decision I needed to make was where to buy.

I'm a member of Napster and I love their "Napster To Go" service that allows me to download around two million songs for a flat rate of only $14.95 a month. It's a great deal! You can download and listen on several different computers (at work, home and even my laptop) and also transfer the music to an approved portable device like my Dell DJ. You never actually have to pay for any of the music as long as you pay the monthly fee. It's a wondrous program!!

Except I really prefer my Apple iPod device and you cannot play a single Napster purchased tune on an iPod. It's a "Digital Rights Management" issue along with proprietary software.

And you cannot burn any of the tunes to a CD. Those are the liabilities of the "Napster To Go" program. Sadly iTunes has no similar program.

So the solution is to go ahead and purchase the tracks individually and then legally burn them to a CD and then rip them to mp3's and then upload them to the iPod. That's a real pain in the ass.

But it gets worse!!! Some artists, labels and songwriters place additional restrictions on the legally downloaded tunes. They withhold the "Burn Rights" so you cannot legally make a CD even after you pay the 99 cents to buy the track!!!!

This, of course, makes no sense. You can download and listen to the music on multiple computers and even portable devices at no charge beyond the monthly fee, but you cannot give the artist and label money and burn a copy.

If you really want this song you are now left with only two options. One, go to Amazon and buy the CD, wait a week for delivery and then rip the song to mp3...... or go onto an illegal file sharing site and obtain the song for free (completely illegally) and listen where ever and whenever you want, on any device.

Add to this bit of stupidity that no site offers all the music. Napster has a lot of "exclusives" and iTunes has even more. To create your perfect mix you are likely going to be forced to go to several different sites and purchase tracks in a variety of different formats, all with different Digital Rights Management restrictions. You will then be forced to burn multiple CD's in order to reverse rip the songs into the universally accepted mp3 format before you can ever use your iPod!!!!

And the RIAA can't figure out why people continue to frequent the illegal, but extremely easy to use, file sharing sites.

The 24 songs I paid for last night took me eight hours of hell and $23.76 to get them onto my iPod and on to a single CD I can listen to in my car. Eight hours. I'm not joking. And I could never obtain two tracks I wanted. Poor Carrie Underwood and Matchbox Twenty lost out on the 99 cents I wanted to give them. My money went to Avril Livigne and Regina Spektor instead.

Dear RIAA, Jammie Thomas the near poverty level 30 year old, single mother from Brainerd, Minnesota is not the problem. You are.

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The Wizard also recommends you read Paul Resnikoff's excellent analysis of the current RIAA situation: Resnikoff's Parting Shot: Why Major Labels Just Lost

Afghanistan, Occupation and Civil War

Most folks know Arlo Guthrie (that is to say the folks who know him at all) as the teenage hippie Vietnam war protester who wrote the legendary protest song "Alice's Restaurant Massacree," later made into a movie that starred Arlo Guthrie himself.

Or they know Arlo Guthrie as the son of legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie who wrote, among other famous tunes, "This Land is Your Land."

But Arlo Guthrie has had a long and extremely prolific career and is considered my many, including the Wizard, as one of the great singer-songwriters of any generation. He has released dozens of albums and performed in thousands of concerts around thew world.

By the way, Arlo generally refuses to ever sing "Alice's Restaurant" in concert, performing it rarely, but most notably in a sarcastic update attacking the Nixon Whitehouse. That version actually is available on CD and can be ordered through Amazon: "Alice's Restaurant: The Massacree Revisited."

But I'm writing about Arlo today because while the press and public are mistakenly focused on relatively stable Iraq, we are actually losing the war in Afghanistan where al-Qaeda and the Taliban have more power, more land under their control and more success on the battlefield than any time in the last six years.

The Taliban engineered a gigantic moral and financial victory in the kidnapping and subsequent release of the Korean hostages. But victories are also happening on the battlefield in both Pakistan and Afghanistan and the Taliban might actually bring down both governments.
In an extremely detailed and thoughtful analysis, Karl F. Inderfurth writes in the International Herald Tribune:

Controversy rages over the war in Iraq, but what about the so-called other war in Afghanistan, for which there is strong bipartisan support in the United States and in the international community? Is there a danger of losing in Afghanistan? The answer is yes. Almost six years after U.S.- led military forces removed the Taliban and its Qaeda support network from power, major challenges are seriously undermining popular support and trust in the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai: A resurgent Taliban and a growing sense of insecurity throughout the country, including Kabul; rampant corruption, ineffective law enforcement and a weak judicial system; a failure to provide social services, lagging reconstruction and high unemployment; a booming drug trade and too many warlords. Mounting civilian casualties are turning Afghans against the nearly 45,000 U.S. and NATO troops in their country, provoking demonstrations and a motion in the upper house of Parliament to set a date for their withdrawal. These incidents also provide a propaganda windfall and new recruits for the Taliban. Karzai has told U.S. and NATO commanders that the patience of the Afghan people is wearing thin. He said civilian deaths and aggressive, arbitrary searches of people's houses have reached an unacceptable level, adding "Afghans cannot put up with it any longer."

What we forget is that, like Iraq, Afghanistan is also an occupation. This isn't a conventional World War II style combat. We are occupiers and Afghanistan really hates to be occupied.

We need to study the history of Afghanistan to see just how difficult, or maybe impossible, our mission is in that country.

Arlo Guthrie knows. He performed a series of concerts in the old Soviet Union in the 1980's and even wrote a song for the abused and forgotten Russian troops who suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Afghan and Taliban "insurgents" under the leadership of a young heroic freedom fighter, Osama bin Laden.

With covert military aid coming from our own CIA, Osama bin Laden beat back the better equipped Russian occupiers, eventually dealing them an ultimate defeat that many historians believe did more to end Soviet dominance than the strength and opposition of Ronald Reagan and the United States.

Truly the defeat in Afghanistan was a defeat from which the Soviet Union never recovered. For more information about the soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan from 1979 until 1989 and the role the defeat in Afghanistan played in the collapse of the Soviet Union start with this entry in Wikipedia .

Today NATO and the United States may well be looking at the second expulsion of occupiers from Afghanistan. In an article in today's ECONOMIST:

Now things are going awry in Afghanistan, too. The United States drove out the Taliban regime in order to deprive al-Qaeda of a safe haven. Nearly six years on, this aim has not been realised. In large tracts of southern Afghanistan the writ of the elected government of Hamid Karzai does not run and Taliban fighters operate more freely than the NATO forces that prop him up. Worse, this hostile territory crosses the border into Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), home to some 3m people, where the writ of Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, hardly runs either. And now the general may be losing his grip on Pakistan as a whole. Far from being caught in a pincer between pro-American governments in Kabul and Islamabad, al-Qaeda and its fellow travellers have consolidated a stronghold that encroaches on the territory and may in time threaten the survival of both.

Guthrie's haunting "When a Soldier Makes it Home" (from the Mystic Journey album) chronicling the return of broken and beaten soldiers from Afghanistan may turn out to be more than an homage to the Soviet soldiers, but an eerie premonition of the returning American soldiers just a few years from now.

Throughout the centuries this has been the fate of those who dared to occupy Afghanistan.

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"When a Soldier Makes it Home" along with almost the entire catalogs of Arlo and Woody Guthrie are part of the rotation on Wizard Radio. Because of today's journal entry, the rotation of Guthrie music will be substantially increased, including both versions of "Alice's Restaurant."

A Message from Senators Brownback and Wyden

It looks like Congress has caught on to SoundExchange's bait and switch negotiating strategy. Just how long does the RIAA think they can continue to mislead Congress without penalty. Probably as long as they keep the big donation checks flowing.

Luckily two Senators are acting in rare bipartisan unity to bring the big label record industry back to the negotiating table.

Below I present to you the statement issued by U.S. Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) regarding efforts to save Internet radio. The emphasis is mine.

“We sponsored the Internet Radio Equality Act because the Copyright Royalty Board’s decision to dramatically increase royalties and apply what we see as unfounded minimum rates threatens to devastate the Internet radio industry. The fact is online radio services do not have enough revenue to support what will amount to unprecedented royalties. The $500 per channel minimum fee alone will deliver an over $1 billion annual windfall to record companies, a windfall that is not justified by any business or equity considerations."

“Now we are hearing that the recording industry is attempting to use this aspect of the CRB decision to force webcasters to adopt recording restrictions far in excess of the controls that have governed broadcast content for decades. While we strongly support a negotiated solution, we will not allow the minimum fee issue to be used to force an agreement that mandates DRM technology and fails to respect the established principles of fair use and consumer rights."

“After the July 15 deadline came and went we were pleased to learn that SoundExchange was negotiating with webcasters, and we expected to avoid pushing forward with this legislation. But, as Congress heads into its August recess, we are troubled by the lack of negotiating progress being reported. Broadcasters report that their June 6 offer to SoundExchange has yet to warrant a response, and webcasters report that negotiating meetings with SoundExchange are proving difficult to schedule."

“Internet radio is crucial to many segments of business and culture – to small and large webcasters building sustainable businesses; to independent artists trying to make it in a crowded industry; and to millions of music fans searching for new diverse music that corporate radio generally does not offer. Innovation and creativity are the winners if Internet radio flourishes, and are the losers if Internet radio stagnates."

“If great progress toward a fair solution for webcasters is not made by Congress’s return to Washington after Labor Day, then we plan to take expeditious steps toward passage of the Internet Radio Equality Act. We feel the Senate must take action, and we will make every effort move the Internet Radio Equality Act to the floor.”

Brownback and Wyden are the Senate sponsors of the Internet Radio Equality Act.

TECHNORATI TAGS: HR 2060 RADIO INTERNET RADIO RON WYDEN SAM BROWNBACK FREE SPEECH

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National Association of Broadcasters Backs the Internet Radio Equality Act

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) can't quite seem to negotiate in good faith with anyone, not even the powerful National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) with represents virtually the all AM and FM over the air radio stations in the United States.

"We are disappointed by SoundExchange's continued reluctance to respond to the good-faith reasonable offer put forth by NAB nearly two months ago," said NAB Executive Vice President Dennis Wharton. "NAB will now turn our attention to aggressively advocating in support of Rep. Inslee's legislation to ensure that local radio broadcasters who stream content online are treated fairly."

The RIAA seems determined to force Congress to act. The recording organization seems pathologically incapable of negotiating in good faith.

Certainly all small Internet Radio Station operators appreciate the support of the money rich and well connected National Association of Broadcasters.


INTERNET RADIO SUPPORTS AND PROMOTES INDEPENDENT ARTISTS

The RIAA's position on Internet Radio seems so bizarre many people cannot believe there are not other issues preventing a reasonable settlement with Internet Radio.

"Why," a reasonable and intelligent person would ask, "would the RIAA want to kill an entire industry that serves millions of music lovers?"

I've been saying for the last several years, the issue isn't money and it isn't royalties and it sure as hell isn't providing payment to the artists and musicians. It's all about control. Once all competing Internet Radio Stations are gone the ONLY broadcasters left will be the big record companies themselves. The big four music labels, Sony-BMG, Warner, EMI and Universal are effectively exempt from all rules and all royalties (i.e., they pay the legally mandated royalties to themselves; their net cost is zero).

The key is that when all competition is eliminated, they will play only artists who are signed with the big recording labels. You'll hear Kelly Clarkson, but never again hear Irene Jackson (a Canadian independent who is a favorite on Wizard Radio).

Well, a new study, released last week, proves my point. Mark Lam, the CEO of Live365 (the network that broadcasts all three Wizard Radio Stations), released the following data:

"Only 10-13% of AM/FM music is from independent artists and labels, so we spin four times as much indie music as AM/FM. Our 10,000 DJ's are opening up the diverse spectrum of musical genres and artists while AM/FM program formats narrow it. I see this statistic as a genuine reflection of what music DJ's will play when the choice is driven by what people like rather than profits."

Live 365's broadcast mix is shown on the LEFT and AM/FM Radio is shown on the right.

Both of the above stories are covered in depth in the July 26th issue of Radio and Internet News RAIN (click here).

TECHNORATI TAGS: RIAA SAVE NET RADIO HR 2060 RADIO KURT HANSON RAIN RADIO AND INTERNET NEWS INTERNET RADIO WIZARD RADIO THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTERS NAB

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Death By a Thousand Cuts

The ongoing battle between the fledgling Internet Radio industry and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)continues at a snail's pace. I try to keep those of you who stop by this journal updated on the most recent developments.

But the RIAA is incredibly clever. They realize, correctly I fear, that if they drag this out long enough, the public will simply lose interest. The pressure on Congress will decrease and bigger issues will eclipse the plight of a few thousand broadcasters and a few million listeners.

Congress has twice been ready to act. House Bill 2060 has over 130 co-sponsors. And the Senate Bill has powerful backers. As each of the two previous deadlines approached Sound Exchange, the royalty collection arm of the RIAA, promised huge concessions in front of Congressional Committees only to pull them back and attach bizarre conditions to any settlement.

Many Members of Congress are aware of this bate and switch. But the process drags on into the fall and Internet Radio may finally breath its last, to be replaced by an RIAA controlled pay-per-listen model limited to the comparatively few artists and musicians signed with RCA, Columbia, Sony and the other big players. And even these artists will receive nothing for their performances.

Today I ask you follow these links and read two excellent and impartial articles about the current battle. First is Sounds of silence: Internet radio hangs on from The Seattle Times and the second is Webcasting Royalties: A Modest Proposal from WIRED Magazine.

Please drop a note, letter email or phone call to your Congressperson and your two Senators. Otherwise Internet Radio will die a slow and agonizing death.

TECHNORATI TAGS: RIAA SAVE NET RADIO HR 2060 RADIO KURT HANSON RAIN RADIO AND INTERNET NEWS INTERNET RADIO WIZARD RADIO THE SEATTLE TIMES WIRED MAGAZINE

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Independent Artists To Go Down With The Ship

"Right now, independent artists make up less than 10 percent of what's played on broadcast radio, but on Internet radio, we make up about 37 percent."

"The reality is if our representatives in Congress allow these new royalty rates to go into effect -- and it's within Congress' power to decide -- it'll make it far harder for independent artists like us to make it."

"Worse for those of us who are also music fans, online radio will start to sound a whole lot more like broadcast radio. Millions of people whose musical tastes aren't served by broadcast radio will be left without an alternative."

Kenneth Rainey, a member of Tangleweed, an acoustic Americana band, writing on the op-ed page of today's Chicago Tribune

TECHNORATI TAGS: KENNETH RAINEY SAVE NET RADIO HR 2060 RADIO CHICAGO TRIBUNE RAIN RADIO AND INTERNET NEWS INTERNET RADIO WIZARD RADIO CENSORSHIP FREE SPEECH

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Imagine If Every Independent Blog Were Censored

Imagine if only the big corporations were allowed to post their thoughts on line. If you were one of the very lucky few who where hired by The Washington Post or MSNBC your opinions might be on-line (edited by your bosses, of course). But if you were just a private citizen then you would be eliminated from the blogosphere.

That is EXACTLY the situation facing Internet Radio tonight. Today there are, worldwide, about 10,000 independent broadcasters. While you might be able to hear some of them next week if you live in Europe or Asia, they will be unavailable in the United States. And 95% of them will be gone period.

Think this can only happen in China? Or Iran? Think again. This is happening today, in the United States!

It doesn't matter if they broadcast classical music, political talk shows, or the ambient sounds of wind and surf, the RIAA wants them off the air and off the air they will be.

Now, even the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) can't pass a CENSORSHIP law (as much as they obviously want to), so they are eliminating all competition by demanding gigantic royalties exclusively of Internet Radio. Nobody else has to pay to play. Just the little guys.

They (the RIAA) claim they just want the poor performers to get a fair shake. But the reality is that the performers will never see a dime. See Kurt Hanson's analysis in today's Radio and Internet News (RAIN).

Are you going to sit there and watch 10,000 voices be silenced? Or will you follow this link and call your Senators and Congress persons every day. EVERY DAY. Save Net Radio

P.S. A tip 'o the Wizard's pointy cap to Senator John Kerry who just added his name to the sponsorship of the Internet Radio Equality Act. When your calling Senators, call John Kerry and thank him. I just did.

TECHNORATI TAGS: DAY OF SILENCE SAVE NET RADIO HR 2060 RADIO KURT HANSON RAIN RADIO AND INTERNET NEWS INTERNET RADIO WIZARD RADIO JOHN KERRY FREE SPEECH

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A Question About the Future of Talk Radio

A reader and contributor here at the WIZARD, fkap posted a question this morning about TALK RADIO on the Internet and I thought I would enlarge my answer and post it here for all to read. When the RIAA and it's royalty collection arm, SOUND EXCHANGE, kills 99% of Internet Radio later this week, Talk Radio will be an indirect casualty. Here's what's happening:

vigilante asked I'm curious, Wizard: just how much public affairs (news & Opinion) can one find on Internet Radio? Where can you find it? How much bandwidth does it suck up? And, is it free?

I replied vigilante, There is a lot of talk and political radio and that arena of Internet Broadcasting is the fastest growing segment. Here's the good news: In theory talk radio is unaffected by the recent Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) rulings PROVIDED they carefully avoid the use of any music what-so-ever (not even the bumper music leading in and out of segments!!!!) Just one note of music, one time, and they fall into the nightmare of the RIAA royalty battle we now face. But even talk radio will be dealt a severe blow next Saturday. Although carefully programmed talk and religious radio (remember they couldn't use any music) can be broadcast for only the cost of bandwidth and computer server support, the network that hosts several hundred of the political, religious and talk stations will go into bankruptcy under the weight of a ten million dollar retroactive bill from SOUND EXCHANGE. A huge chunk of the real independent talk radio will die, leaving mainly the big network talk you already hear on AM/FM. In other words Rush Limbaugh will survive but the dozens of independent "vigilante's" will go silent because the infrastructure that allowed them to broadcast for a few hundred dollars a year will be gone. Be sure to go to http://www.savenetradio.org/ You can get the full background on the crisis and learn how you can help. The only solution today is to put massive pressure on Congress. Here is a listing of 320 talk stations you can listen to for free (today and for another 6 sixs). Some are weird (UFO's etc) some are religious and some a excellent liberal/progressive outlets. http://www.live365.com/cgi-bin/directory.cgi?genre=talk You can start your own station on LIVE365. The first week is free (HA!!) and then the whole thing will likely be dead... It's not really that funny, but the irony is thick......

Remember these three key facts:

• Internet Radio ALREADY PAYS THE HIGHEST ROYALTIES IN THE WORLD TO THE RIAA, MAJOR LABELS and ARTISTS
  

AM and FM Radio PAYS NO ROYALTIES AT ALL TO THE RIAA or to the LABELS or to the ARTISTS. Satellite Radio does pay royalties, but they pay a whole lot less.

THE RIAA IS ONLY DEMANDING THE GIGANTIC INCREASE IN ROYALTIES FROM INTERNET RADIO!! They are not requesting a penny from AM and FM radio. THE ENTIRE GOAL OF THE RIAA IS TO KILL THE INDEPENDENT BROADCASTER who play independent artists and new, emerging talent.

The RIAA clearly isn't interested in seeing artists get paid. If they were they wouldn't kill the one medium paying them handsomely already.

TECHNORATI TAGS: TALK RADIO SAVE NET RADIO HR 2060 RADIO KURT HANSON RIAA RADIO AND INTERNET NEWS INTERNET RADIO WIZARD RADIO LIVE 365 FREE SPEECH

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Save Internet Radio, It's the Patriotic Thing To Do

Peter Rothberg wrote a great patriotic piece for the Fourth of July in the blog he writes for "The Nation" Magazine. The article is titled "Five for the Fouth" Here is a short, but important, excerpt:

"As my boss and Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel wrote,... The Nation's 'definition of patriotism is fighting to make sure your country lives up to its highest ideals.' In that spirit, here are five measures worth supporting on this Fourth of July. All would help us form a more perfect union. 1. Health Care for All 2. End Torture, not Habeas Corpus 3. Voting Representation for DC 4. The Right to Organize 5. Save Internet Radio "Internet radio has become a tremendously popular source of news and views plus music. In just the last year the online radio audience increased from 45 million to 72 million listeners each month. The founding fathers couldn't have anticipated the wonders of the electronic world. But I think it's safe to say that the democratic free-for-all of Internet radio would have met with their approval as a crucial part of the fourth estate that Jefferson held was critical to a functioning democracy. "Unfortunately, the future of Internet radio is in doubt as royalty rates for webcasters have been drastically increased by a recent ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board. The only hope is that sufficient grassroots pressure can be applied in support of the Internet Radio Equality Act... "Please implore your senators and reps to co-sponsor and vote in favor of the Internet Radio Equality Act (HR 2060) and ask your friends to join the coalition to save Internet radio."

Read the entire blog post at The Nation.

TECHNORATI TAGS: THE NATION SAVE NET RADIO HR 2060 RADIO KURT HANSON RAIN RADIO AND INTERNET NEWS INTERNET RADIO WIZARD RADIO LIVE 365 FREE SPEECH

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NEWS FLASH: 'Silence' Overwhelms Congressional Switchboards

Kurt Hanson's Radio and Internet News (RAIN) reports this afternoon that the Internet Radio Day of Silence has overwhelmed both the websites connecting listeners to Congress and Congressional office telephone switchboards.

A massive response by listeners to today's ongoing "Day of Silence" event has overwhelmed the web and database servers being used by SaveNetRadio.org and is tying up switchboards in Congressional offices all over Capitol Hill as a deluge of online radio listeners have rushed to contact their representatives to ask them to co-sponsor the "Internet Radio Equality Act." Beginning just before 10AM CT, the SaveNetRadio.org site saw huge numbers of visitors begin to arrive, coming from links set up by webcasters participating in today's event. Shortly thereafter, the section of the site that lets users look up contact information for their Congressmen and Senators, (powered by Capitol Advantage's CapWiz) was crippled by large numbers of users trying to simultaneously access their reps' information. According to a representative from SaveNetRadio, "This is by far the biggest one-day load [CapWiz] has ever been hit with, and they are adding servers and moving all available resources ASAP." The website is in the process of revising its home page to ask listeners to try again later this afternoon or tomorrow. Meanwhile, listeners who do get the contact information for their representatives are having trouble getting through to the offices, as most House and Senate staff office phone numbers seem to be nonstop busy signals at the moment. Nearly a dozen phone calls from the RAIN office to various Congressional offices' switchboards have been unable to get through, as the lines appear to be flooded with callers.

Live365's servers were also swamped and the website was down most of the day. However, the special WiZARD RADIO broadcast is taking place exactly as planned. You can tune in and listen any time.

The most imporant thing you can do, however, is to pick up the telephone and call your Senator. You only need to say one short thing: Ask him or her to Co-Sponsor or support the "Internet Radio Equality Act." This will simply allow Internet Radio to pay the exact same royalties of Satellite Radio.

We don't want a free ride. We want a fair ride.

TECHNORATI TAGS: DAY OF SILENCE SAVE NET RADIO HR 2060 RADIO KURT HANSON RAIN RADIO AND INTERNET NEWS INTERNET RADIO WIZARD RADIO LIVE 365 FREE SPEECH

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