The King of Pointland

I Can't Hear It

Mourning the Death of American Radio. But you knew this already.

I've been listenning to KEXP, a public radio station from Seattle, when I'm not listenning to WMUC. Internet radio really seems to be where it's at these days. Just last year, it looked like an endangered species, when the U.S. Copyright office settled on unreasonably high licensing fees for music webcasting. Instead of charging a fraction of revenue, as is done with over-the-air radio, the plan would have required all webcasters to pay a fixed fee per song, per listener, at a rate that would have driven all but the big commercial interests off the Net.

Sometimes the system works, though. Responding to the pleas of small webcasters and listeners, Congress passed the Small Webcaster Settlement Act, and last week, college broadcasters and the recording industry came to an agreement that seems to please both sides, more or less.