Archive for September, 2008

MySpace Shorts Independent Music

According to several sources, including The Associated Press:

MySpace’s new music service managed to bring major record labels together, but a group that licenses song rights for thousands of independent labels feels left out and angry, partly because indie musicians were a big reason the social networking site rose to prominence in the first place.

From: Myspace songs launch irks independent music group

Isn’t this a case of biting the hand that feeds you? Independent musicians discovered MySpace long before the labels did. MySpace’s music was built on the offerings of independent acts and their fans.

Thoughts? Comments?

Help Pandora and Net Radio

This weekend, legislation is being considered that would benefit internet radio. Pandora and others are calling on net radio fans to contact their Congressmen and women today:

After a yearlong negotiation, Pandora, artists and record companies are finally optimistic about reaching an agreement on royalties that would save Pandora and Internet radio. But just as we’ve gotten close, large traditional broadcast radio companies have launched a covert lobbying campaign to sabotage our progress.

Yesterday, Congressman Jay Inslee, and several co-sponsors, introduced legislation to give us the extra time we need but the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), which represents radio broadcasters such as Clear Channel, has begun intensively pressuring lawmakers to kill the bill. We have just a day or two to keep this from collapsing.

This is a blatant attempt by large radio companies to suffocate the webcasting industry that is just beginning to offer an alternative to their monopoly of the airwaves.

Please call your Congressperson right now and ask them to support H.R. 7084, the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008 – and to not capitulate to pressure from the NAB. Congress is currently working extended hours, so even calls this evening and over the weekend should get answered.

The central congressional switchboard number is: (202) 225 3121

Or to look up your representative, visit: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml

If the phone is busy, please try again until you get through. These calls really do make a difference.

This is a fork in the road. Only massive grassroots opposition will keep us from another 50 years of top 40 radio. It’s time to take a stand and break the stranglehold of broadcast media on radio.

Thanks so much for you ongoing support.

Tim

Founder, Pandora

Online Listening Party Tonight

You’re invited to Isaac Johnson’s Online Listening Party.

Listen to Isaac’s “A Place In the Sun” by joining the Isaac Johnson Partyline listening party at OurStage.com TONIGHT, September 24, 6 p.m. PST, 9 p.m. EST. PartyLine is a real-time online chat and media-sharing forum where you get exclusive access to music and a chance to voice your opinion. Watch videos, check out photos, and hear music along with everyone else in the chat. Help Isaac decide which of his songs or videos should be entered in Channel competitions on OurStage, get the inside scoop on the creative process behind each new piece, and meet other people with similar tastes in music.

To enter the party, register at OurStage.com and join Isaac’s Fan Club. There will be a link at the top of the fan club to join the PartyLine!