RadioActivity.fm Blog - 2010 posts
(Looking for our newer blog posts? They're over here)
07.10.2010 - Here's a neat idea - let an actual artist run SoundExchange
Much digital ink was spilled last week over the announcement that the head of SoundExchange will be stepping down by the end of the year.
SoundExchange is the 'non-profit performance rights organization' that, among other things, has been criticized for its well-paid staff, its $200+ million dollars in undistributed royalties, its close ties to the RIAA and its controversial funding of musicFIRST, its ever-increasing recordkeeping legislation aimed at webcasters, and their yearly missing/unpaid artists list.
SoundExchange is also partially why RadioActivity.fm had to come into being - there simply weren't any services around to help stations figure out the byzantine and poorly documented process of complying with SoundExchange.
SoundExchange is staffed across the board with industry bigwigs - and is roundly expected to tap yet another ex-industry or ex-RIAA somebody as their new director - but this petition caught my eye: Elect an Artist to run SoundExchange.
Samantha Murphy is a singer/songwriter, and she'd like you to vote for her to be the new Executive Director at SoundExchange. She has a petition for this (natch) which I'll now quote liberally:
Most artists aren't aware that SoundExchange has been given the right to collect all royalty payments from online and satellite radio sources. Regardless of whether you've signed with them or not. Unlike BMI and ASCAP, they have no competitor. The government has declared SoundExchange the sole collectors of all payments owed to artists and copyright holders.
...
Many artists agree that, in practice, SoundExchange has been a disaster. SoundExchange claims to not be able to find 20% of the artists they represent. This doesn't even include the thousands of artists they don't represent, but have been collecting money for the last 10 years. Questions about money owed to us are buried and ignored. Earlier this year, SoundExchange even announced a balance of $200 million in outstanding royalties. This money belongs to us.
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If I become president of SoundExchange, here is my commitment to you. I promise to create a transparent organization, where we are open and honest with what we are doing with your money. I promise we will spare no effort in locating every musician that we are obligated to pay. And I promise that I will make SoundExchange finally work, so that musicians like you and me get what we are owed.
So - the odds are insane on this ever actually happening, but a vote for Samantha is a vote for some badly-needed transparency at SoundExchange. So she gets my vote, and perhaps she should get yours, too.
07.09.2010 - RadioActivity.fm now offers streaming services, too
Good news for stations that want to outsource their streaming!
I deal with a lot of streaming server hosts for my clients, usually to collect and analyze streaming server logs. After years of
- watching stations lose their streaming logs every time a server reboots
- watching stations wildly overpay for streaming
- dealing with shoddy (and sometimes nonexistent) customer support
... after enduring this for years, I've just bitten the bullet and am now offering streaming services through RadioActivity.fm as well. I now have Icecast and ShoutCast servers on tap here in the RadioActivity.fm colo, ready to serve your station!
For stations that are happy with their existing streaming services, no worries - this means RadioActivity.fm can offer hot-spares and over-stream services if you need them. Did your streaming server blow a hard drive last night? Is your all-reggae marathon maxing out your listener limit? No worries - just drop me a line and we'll get you streaming again.