So there's a big hike in the works for Internet radio royalties. Almost a 3x hike, that will surely drive a lot of stations off the air. Some have proposed a solution of just not playing any RIAA music and settling the royalty fees with independent labels at a reasonable rate. Seems reasonable, two parties doing business, providing services and products in exchange for payment. Unfortunately it won't work because the RIAA created royalties collection agency, SoundExchange, somehow swindled a compulsory license out of the Copyright Office over all recorded music. That means that they are entitled to collect royalties on all music played on Internet radio and the artists or labels they "represent" can pay to join the association to collect their cut. What this means is that an entity that does not own the rights to property is collecting fees for performances, even if the owner doesn't want to, and then takes a cut before passing it on to its owner. What if the artist never comes looking for their royalties? Well, SoundExchange is entitled to all unclaimed fees. Wow. How the hell did this happen? We're going to have to change the expression to "Death, Taxes and the RIAA"
The RIAA tells people that simply listening to music without paying for it is a terrible crime that people should be punished for. Yet... the RIAA getting money for non-RIAA music and not paying the deserving artists that money is perfectly legal? Damn, the RIAA lobbyists are good.
Lawmakers: We don't need music middle men any more. Distribution, marketing and compensation aren't insurmountable hurdles to the everyman. In fact it is becoming more and more evident that the RIAA exists only because of the laws channeling money into it, which it uses to lobby for laws that will force more income. This is good for the RIAA, but not for the Musicians and Consumers; the hosts to the RIAA parasite.
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