SoundExchange, the government licensed royalty collectors for all music that hits American ears, wants it’s money. Going back for I don’t even know how far back yet. Their bloated rates are impossible. Not to mention insanely unfair for web radio compared to any other medium… [Link to SE's Letter]

Side note for those who don’t know: I’m just a guy who’s lost my job, can barely afford to operate the station and doesn’t even make any money on it. Support donations maybe account for one tenth the cost of operation. It plays music that’s primarily donated by the artists & labels. (Artists and Labels which probably want nothing to do with SoundExchange.)

EBM-Radio has encouraged COUNTLESS music sales and is designed strictly for the purpose of promoting music in what’s still probably fair to call a tiny market of obscure genres.

Hopefully I’ll get to talk to a lawyer about it soon. They’ve only given me 21 days to pay up. Sounds like when times get tough, the real crooks get even more greedy.

Artists & Labels, especially in the U.S., don’t seem to say a whole lot on the subject. So I don’t even know where they stand but I do know this doesn’t appear to be a situation where it matters either because so far there isn’t indication of anything like an “exclusion list” aside from limiting the broadcast to specifically public domain / royalty free music.

…this does seem to be a good time to figure all that out.

One thing I’ve discovered so far. That is, an amazing amount of people:

  1. Still don’t/didn’t even know what SoundExchange is.
  2. Think you can just be a tough guy and “fight back!” or simply ignore them.
  3. Don’t think it’s serious.
  4. Can’t grasp the potential consequences.
  5. Don’t know how the SE system works and that virtually (maybe literally!!) none of any royalties would really go to any of the artists being played!
  6. Don’t even care either way.
  7. Aren’t even U.S. listeners, so they’re not even responsible for letting our laws, government, corporations et al go so far out of control.

Feel free to start up conversation in the comments. It’s a great excuse to increase awareness of all these issues.

Next time you get drunk & feel like being belligerent in public, hop on twitter and tell @SoundExchange what you think!

I know EBM-Radio has made & kept a lot of people pretty happy since plenty of you don’t mind saying so. I just hope it doesn’t have to be shut down.

Here’s a little article written by someone who really knows his stuff: [Link] and there’s also the Wikipedia page, here: [Link]

Finally, it is also worth noting that as a paying ”Founding Broadcaster” with Live365.com (http://live365.com/stations/cygnostik), I’ve technically been paying at least a little into SoundExchange (with mixed feelings of course) since June 29th, 2001 and by supporting Live365, trying to contribute to a better future for music online. Even though it’s tough to afford a more expensive account right now… There it is, active and payed for monthly as it has been for so many years.