Welcome to the O Music Awards guest writer series, a place where we hand the proverbial reins over to qualified writers/musicians/etc and let them share their thoughts about music, technology and more. Today’s guest blogger is Myxer CMO, Mike Carson.
Welcome to the O Music Awards guest writer series, a place where we hand the proverbial reins over to qualified writers/musicians/etc and let them share their thoughts about music, technology and more. Today’s guest blogger is Jason Sigal, a DJ at the freeform radio station WFMU-FM, where he is former director of the Free Music Archive. He also writes music for Lame Drivers and plays bass in Home Blitz.
Welcome to the O Music Awards guest writer series, a place where we hand the proverbial reins over to qualified writers/musicians/etc and let them share their thoughts about music, technology and more. Today’s guest blogger is Jonathan Sexton, musician and co-founder of Artist Growth. This is the first part in a series of opinion pieces dealing with Pandora’s proposed “Internet Radio Fairness Act,” which would lower the royalty rates that Internet radio pays to artists. Currently, Internet radio pays the highest royalties, cable and satellite pay significantly less, and terrestrial radio pays nothing.
The whole “How can bands make a living in the Internet age?” thing reached a fever pitch of late when Pandora turned to Congress to pass the Internet Radio Fairness Act in an effort to reduce royalty rates for Internet radio services. Bands, accordingly, lashed back — 100 fold — protesting Pandora’s efforts and stating that this move would seriously cut back on the royalties that bands rely on to survive. Cue the barrage of opinion pieces and raised ire on all sides — both music and tech. As of yet, however, no one seems to be offering any new solutions as to how this whole situation can be remedied — and therein lies the rub.