Radio Free A&M: Pulling The Plug, or Shaking The Tree?

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Rudy

¡Que siga la fiesta!
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Just posted on our home page:

It had to happen. Everything else on the internet that is free (or should we say, was free) is slowly going away. As a charter broadcaster of Live365, we've been streaming A&M music for many months now, free to both us and our listeners. Due to heavyhanded legislation from Washington, bought and paid for by lobbyist organizations like the RIAA and other music industry concerns, Live365 is now imposing a $5/month fee on all broadcasts. If broadcasters don't sign up, these broadcasts will go off the air as of August 1, 2002. To its credit, Live365 is still trying to oppose the fee...but in the meantime, they're now asking all broadcasters to cough up the fees. What's really frustrating (the "untold story", so to speak) is that, as broadcasters, we see nothing in writing that guarantees that the artists and composers will ever see a penny of this money! One just gets the feeling that corrupt lobbyist organizations like the RIAA will use it to line their pockets and continue their "the consumer is the enemy" crusade against all of us...and why should we fund something that goes against our listening experience?

My own 2/5 of a nickel: I haven't listened to it myself since February (dropped connections and poor sound quality do not go far with me), so my own gut reaction is that I just let it go. Advertising intermixed with the broadcasts is still on the rise, and Live365 has slowly been chipping away at my 'broadcaster' features each time I turn around. And in another effort to raise money, listeners can now pay $4.95 to turn off all the intrusive ads. (The only was I ever listened was by saving the station as a bookmark in Winamp, and playing it w/o all of Live365's added crap.)

My other option awhile ago was to run a Shoutcast server from my web server here at home, but it would be a "pirate" station, since Shoutcast is just a technology (meaning it does not use, or imply, any licensing).

Any comments?

-= N =-
 
As I may have said before, we are headed towards a gentrification of "the music," with T.P.T.B. attempting to drive a wedge between the "musician/artist/etc." and "fan." Doubtless this "treat-a-cut-on-your-finger-by-amputating-your-entire-hand" approach the RIAA is using will exacerbate the gap between the "haves" and "have-nots" in this venue.

In addition, the RIAA, MPAA etc., are filled -- every fiber of their being -- with this whole elitist condescension mentality so prevalent among the top five percent that control 95 percent of the wealth, and heavy-handedly seek to keep "the masses" out completely. A mentality along the lines of, "We, and we alone, know what's best for everybody, and believe the public cannot be trusted with anything, or to make the 'right' decisions." This is a mentality which has been in existence for generations, and in terms of the U.S. history dates back to "Founding Father" Alexander Hamilton.

Being that four of the Top Five majors are foreign-owned, one can even say that the RIAA's callous, heartless policies are anti-American.
 
W.B. said:
Being that four of the Top Five majors are foreign-owned, one can even say that the RIAA's callous, heartless policies are anti-American.

Let's turn this around: how come 80% of the record labels in this country are owned by foreigners, and yet they dictate how we enact our laws or, worse, amend our constitution? Far as I'm concerned, they have no say once they're within our borders. I guess with that kind of money, they can buy whatever politicians and judges they want to push their anti-consumer agenda.

-= N =-
 
Rudy said:
. . . (H)ow come 80% of the record labels in this country are owned by foreigners, and yet they dictate how we enact our laws or, worse, amend our constitution? Far as I'm concerned, they have no say once they're within our borders. I guess with that kind of money, they can buy whatever politicians and judges they want to push their anti-consumer agenda.

With that kind of money in the picture, the old saying goes, in the choice between the consumers' rights and the megalomania of the multinational corporations in question, our politi¢ian$ will always side with the multinationals. And most of our politi¢ian$, as is not exactly a news flash, are bought and paid for. This has been increasingly the case since Ronald Reagan was President.
 
I had Live 365/Radio Free A&M on my computer for a while, but deleted it when the amount of dropped connections and reconnections made the whole thing unpleasant to deal with.
I guess if I deleted it when it was free.....well, somehow paying now doesn't really make much sense to me...... :sad:
 
Captaindave said:
I had Live 365/Radio Free A&M on my computer for a while, but deleted it when the amount of dropped connections and reconnections made the whole thing unpleasant to deal with.
I guess if I deleted it when it was free.....well, somehow paying now doesn't really make much sense to me...... :sad:

It's still free for listeners. I never could keep a good connection when we had a dial-up internet connection, but even on a cable modem, it's not really perfect. I once tried running the broadcast from my own computer, but for some reason thier servers could not keep up with the stream I was feeding them, and the resulting speed was something less than a 28.8k modem. Worse sound quality than AM radio, IOW.

-= N =-
 
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