Today marks another day of protest by Internet radio stations around the world, and they are doing it by going silent.
On Tuesday, June 26, thousands of U.S.-based webcasters plan to turn off the music and go silent in a unified effort to draw attention to an impending royalty rate increase that, if implemented, would lead to the virtual shutdown of this country’s Internet radio industry. [rain]
I wrote about this not long ago, and it seems that the fight goes on. More importantly, I’m bummed that I can’t listen to WOXY today. Truly, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.
Thinking about this some more today, I was pondering the argument of why listen to Internet radio anyway? Well, for myself, I used to listen to it all the time while at work. Yes, while working at a radio station, I listened to another radio station for the simple fact of maintaining some sense of sanity. A little dose here and there goes a long way.
The other element to consider is the growing trend of wi-fi enabled cellphones. Look at the iPhone for instance. True that it’s an iPod and a cellphone, but the wi-fi built into it as well as the ability to develop web based applications for it means streaming media galore. You can get all the YouTube you want, but sometimes you need to let go of the controls to the music.
Streaming into WOXY from a wireless hotspot while I enjoy a non-Starbucks coffee? I am all for it.
Therefore, Save Internet Radio, please.
KEXP is playing music today:
“While we applaud the energy that our fellow webcasters are putting towards affecting positive change via the “Day of Silence,” we ultimately feel an obligation to our listeners to not pull away our music services online from them. At the same time, we continue actively participating in efforts to bring about a reasonable solution.”
http://kexp.org/about/decision.asp
I’ve gone to some stuff overseas in the meantime. Zeilsteen Radio… The Dutch know how to rock it.