| April 7th, 2008 SmoothJazz.com is now available on the Apple iPhone, which takes the original smooth jazz Internet radio station off the 'Net and into the mobile world, including cars. iPhone users simply download the free broadcasting software from FlyTunes.fm, and they are all set to receive hundreds of popular Internet radio stations, including smoothjazz.com and its chilled-out spin-off, smoothlounge.com. Smoothjazz.com founder Sandy Shore tells R&R, “The audio quality is exceptional ... exceeding that of FM and satellite and rivaling CD. Users can listen over the small iPhone speaker, but the experience is exhilarating when plugging in headphones or going direct into the car mp3 jack. “Since the first iPhone rolled out from Apple last year we have been flooded with e-mails from listeners requesting that we make our stations available on the slick mobile device that is incredibly user-friendly and mp3-savvy. With 10 million iPhones expected to be in the hands of the people in 2008, SmoothJazz.com is seemingly at the right place at the right time." ___________________________________________________________________ March 13th, 2008 In the past 30 days the Smooth Jazz format has lost four FM frequencies in significant markets that has the industry concerned about the state of the music genre and fans protesting. SmoothJazz.com's Sandy Shore responds... [CLICK HERE TO READ] ___________________________________________________________________ February 5th, 2008
From The New York Law Journal: Is internet radio destined to be silenced by royalty rates, despite its ever increasing popularity and growth? ___________________________________________________________________ November 28th, 2007 If any place on Earth insists on a variety of music and cultural fare, that place is Seattle, home of Bumbershoot, birthplace of grunge music, a place where great ideas often waft up from our soggy souls. ___________________________________________________________________ November 27th, 2007 YAHOO! INC. and TIME WARNER INC.'s AOL unit may shut down their Web radio services after being hit with a 38% increase in royalties to air music, reports BLOOMBERG. "We're not going to stay in the business if cost is more than we make long term," YAHOO! MUSIC UNIT GM IAN ROGERS, said in an interview.
___________________________________________________________________ August 22nd, 2007 From the RBR Newsletter: We admit it. The MusicFirst Coalition is right: 'Radio should be held to the same standards and should play by the same rules as its competitors.' Agreed. AM and FM stations should pay the same performance royalties as Internet streamers and satellite radio — and that royalty rate should be zero. The radio industry should be aligning itself more closely with the Internet streamers to not only fight the outrageous CRB increases in Internet streaming fees, but to have Congress eliminate them altogether. Just as AM and FM radio airplay sells records, Internet radio airplay sells records. In fact, the Internet guys have added a great bonus to the record companies and artists that over the air broadcasters could never provide — a way to click through and immediately buy the music the listener is hearing. And with the broad variety of music that can be offered through unlimited Internet streams, new markets are being created for obscure music genres and markets are being rejuvenated for the sale of oldies from artists such as Sam Moore and Judy Collins. For AM radio, FM radio, HD Radio and Internet radio, the common cause should be congressional action to level the playing field and make no one pay for helping the record companies sell their wares. July 11th, 2007 SUNDAY could be a dark day for Internet radio. A new royalty structure begins that will wipe out the small budgets of many Internet radio stations. ___________________________________________________________________ June 26, 2007 Today is a day of silence for most Internet Radio stations... Many are silent today in order to convey the seriousness and the weight of the outragesously unfair royalty fees mandated by the copyright royalty board. The artists that you hear on SmoothJazz.com & SmoothLounge.com have agreed to waive these excessive royalties in order that we may play their music on our global broadcast. These artists and labels see the value of Internet radio and agree with us that the copyright royalty board is being short-sighted with regard to the crippling fees they plan to charge webcasters. There are so many more artists however, that are not at liberty to waive these fees because they are bound by an agreement with their recording label and unfortunately, much to our disappointment will not be heard on this station. Likewise, our colleagues who play music from other music genres are not in a position to collect waivers from artists that are bound by such contractual obligations. The tables have really turned in the music industry and it seems that being independent really does promote freedom of expression. Congress is rallying to help but may not be quick enough, so while we will not ever be completely silenced upon the July 15th ruling, we are in solidarity with our fellow Internet broadcasters and urge you to visit SaveNetRadio.org right now to learn how you can be heard today. That's SaveNetRadio.org! ___________________________________________________________________ May 30, 2007 An emergency stay filed today in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit could delay the looming "D-Day" for Internet radio. The motion, filed by the DIGITAL MEDIA ASSN. (DiMA) in conjunction with NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO (NPR) and the SMALL COMMERCIAL WEBCASTERS group, formally requests that the court delay the implementation of the recording royalty rate increase imposed by the COPYRIGHT ROYALTY BOARD (CRB). Legislation that would repeal the rate increase is pending in the Senate and the House, but may not be brought to a vote in either chamber before JULY 15, the day the first payments for the newly increased rates for webcasters are due. "JULY 15, D-Day for Internet radio, is fast approaching," SAVENETRADIO spokesman JAKE WARD said, "and we are hopeful that today's motion for an emergency stay will afford the Internet radio industry crucial time to rehear this case. We have every confidence that Congress will continue to give the Internet Radio Equality Act the attention it deserves with the urgency it requires, as evidenced by the over 100 cosponsors who have signed on H.R. 2060 since its APRIL 26 introduction. SAVENETRADIO and the millions of webcasters, artists and listeners we represent urge the court to give this motion full consideration." ___________________________________________________________________ May 17, 2007 All proceeds from the downloads of their current Smooth Jazz hit album CHASING THE GREEN will be donated to saving Internet Radio by giving the funds to Internet radio stations that have helped launch their career. Band leader/founder, Jared Johnson stated in his proposal of this idea, "I'd like to kick this campaign off with SmoothJazz.com since you've been so great for us. My general idea is to sell 1,000,000 downloads in support of Internet Radio to RAISE awareness. I'd like to put some real money into this fight." SmoothJazz.com President Sandy Shore responded, "Money talks as the title of Talking Books critically-acclaimed new project CHASING THE GREEN suggests. If one million downloads were to sell what a story it would tell. The rather dismissive major label recording industry would get an eyeful of just how important this medium is to breaking new artists, discovering new music and selling product." SmoothJazz.com Radio fans can download Talking Book singles or their full album at DIGSTATION.com. Cast your .99 cent vote today by downloading your favorite Talking Book track at DIGSTATION.com. All proceeds of DIGStation downloads of Talking Book will be donated to the growth and development of Internet Radio. ___________________________________________________________________ May 9th, 2007 A new bill has been introduced to Congress by Reps Jay Insless (D-Wash) and Don Manzullo (R-Ill) that will save Internet radio from the absurdly excessive royalty fee increase that the CRB set into place on March 2, 2007. The Internet Radio Equality Act (H.R. 2060) proposes that Internet broadcasters pay a flat fee of 7.5% of their revenue as opposed to the CRB per song, per listener structure which will surely bankrupt thousands of Internet broadcasters. Advocates championed the bill as more in line with reality. Inslee spokeswoman Christine Hanson said their office alone received about 1,000 complaints about the CRB fees and members of Congress had received more than 400,000 e-mails demanding the fees be changed, so the sponsors are hoping quick action can be taken on the legislation. "You can't put an economic chokehold on this emerging form of democracy," Inslee said in a statement. "There has to be a business model that allows creative Webcasters to thrive, and the existing rule removes all the oxygen from this space." Sound Exchange calls the Internet Equality Act "anti-artist." They have resorted to name calling and labeling the industry of Internet radio a lot of things in the recent past but this one is by far the most flagrant in our opinion. Calling a medium that gives more exposure and airtime to new artists and undiscovered music than any other broadcasting outlet 'anti-artist' is preposterous. Please call your Representative in Congress as soon as possible and urge them to co-sponsor H.R. 2060, the Internet Radio Equality Act. A similar bill will be introduced soon in the Senate. Phone calls are particularly helpful! Find your Congressperson contact info here at SAVENETRADIO.ORG April 25th, 2007 In light of the recent Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) ruling that will impose extreme sound recording copyright royalties on Internet broadcasters, SmoothJazz.com, Inc. will continue to stay its position to play music exclusively by artists and labels that waive these copyright fees. SmoothJazz.com, Inc. has been paying ASCAP, BMI & SESAC since 2000 for the reasonable and fair songwriting and publishing royalties and will continue to support artists and publishers through these agencies. It is relevant to note that the recent CRB ruling is imposing copyright royalties on Internet radio exclusively and FM radio will be exempt. Many are surprised by this given the fact that FM radio is monetarily far more successful than Internet radio at present. The CRB appears to disregard evidence that the imposition of this fee structure will be the equivalent of 100-125% of gross revenue for most Internet broadcasters and in the case of SmoothJazz.com much more. Since these new fees will ultimately be based on listenership and not on a percentage of revenue, SmoothJazz.com would be responsible for well over $400,000 in annual fees and this does not include our newest on-line radio station, SmoothLounge.com, which would represent an additional $150,000 - $200,000 in fees per year. Keep in mind, these fees are on top of existing operating expenses like bandwidth. Artists and labels signing off on SmoothJazz.com airplay waivers do not lose money by doing so. In fact, they stand to actually make more money by signing off because not only will we play their music on our Internet stations and offer links to buy the music at the time of airplay, but we are also committed to paying annual royalties to ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. So by not signing the waiver, artists and labels will not receive airplay hence they will not receive promotional exposure or song writing and publishing royalties. It’s not that we don’t want to play the music, it's that we can’t as the cost is too great as it would far exceed our income. Artists and labels that we support with on-air exposure are the artists and labels that value our vision to redefine radio by playing a deeper mix of music. SmoothJazz.com Radio has been redefining radio by providing an alternative to the mainstream music industry where radio tells its listeners what they want to hear and the major labels dictate the songs that will be played thus locking out many independent artists. As you may know, we have always leaned independent in our mix and have introduced more new music and new artists than any other radio outlet in the format by creating a level playing field that is fertile ground for new and independent artists. We do not understand why the CRB would enforce such a rate structure when the impact will be global within the music industry. We find it very short-sighted as many webcasters will be forced to close shop as they will no longer be able to sustain themselves and support their vision. This will cost many artists Internet airplay which has become a viable promotional outlet for exposure and on-line music sales could quickly diminish as Internet radio enthusiasts who use this radio platform for discovering new music will be without their favorite on-line music channels. This new fee structure could end up costing the recording industry the most. For nearly two decades we've listened to the labels complain about how traditional radio isn’t playing new music (or as much as they'd like them to). While Internet Radio has indeed stepped up to help fill that gap by introducing new music and new artists into the mix, these very companies that have been complaining are now suggesting such an extreme tariff that it makes us wonder if one hand is talking to the other. As we understand it, legitimate concerns were raised in the music industry back in the 1990's when on-line music sites like Napster made it easy for music enthusiasts to "share" song files over the Internet. We understand how this would create apprehension and in time Napster and similar file-sharing websites were either shutdown or restructured. It is important to note here that Internet Radio is not file-sharing. It is radio… in that it is broadcasting sets of songs that are mixed together to create a sonic environment. Even with the modern convenience of personal computer technology it is still far easier to obtain a song off of FM radio than it is from Internet radio. U.S. Internet radio has laws that govern our on-air streams including limits on how many songs we can “pre-sell” in advance (mention what’s coming up) and on how many songs by one artist we can play back to back. We follow these laws and abide by them as we want to do our part to protect artists and their rights. Artists who are backing the CRB ruling regarding Internet radio simply do not have the full story... There appears to be something very askew with the CRB ruling in our opinion… some believe that Internet radio is being imposed upon with these unreasonable royalties due to the fact that it is digital medium. These people contend that Internet radio has negatively affected CD sales over the years because it is readily available and streaming high quality digital audio. We contend that our 128k stream is comparable to that of an FM broadcast. However, if we were to reduce our bitrate to something less than stereo, say 56k and broadcast from analog L.P.s would we then be exempt from paying the newly imposed fee structure? No. According to the ruling it doesn’t matter where the broadcast originates, if it’s streaming over the Internet it is subject to paying copyright royalties. So if it's not a digital issue, then why isn't FM radio affected by this? We can't seem to find an answer to this. Our concern is that there may be a bigger plan in play here... this recent ruling to impose unreasonable fees on Internet radio exclusively will allow for large corporations with lots of money to afford the extreme fees to broadcast on-line, thus returning the model to that of traditional radio. Who will this benefit? People are saying that it's the major labels who have enjoyed a clandestine relationship with radio for decades as the two called the shots on who got played and who didn't. It seems so much more money was made when there were fewer artists on fewer outlets. When reviewing a recent press piece in a national news publication the head of a music royalty collection agency slipped when referring to the quantity of Internet radio stations as 'diluting' to the music industry and that a 'culling' of Internet radio would not necessarily be a bad thing. If the music industry wants a scape goat, there are plenty out there involving questionable means of obtaining music without paying full retail price. Like websites dedicated to swapping previously owned CDs for $1 (which doesn't go to the artist, the label or the previous owner, rather it goes to the website that has set up the environment in which to swap in). Or certain popular music management software that allows for "sharing" libraries with others who are on-line on the same network. We encourage the recording industry to embrace Internet broadcasting... the ideals, the values, the quality... and restructure the sound recording copyright fees to be reasonable and fair so that this exciting medium may continue to develop and thrive and to provide promotional opportunities as a cost-effective global platform to market new music. SmoothJazz.com will continue to support recording artists by paying annual songwriting and publishing fees fairly structured by ASCAP, BMI & SESAC. We will play music that we are invited to play by artists and labels. Please stay tuned. For more information or to submit your music to SmoothJazz.com please email playme@smoothjazz.com Over 600 artists and labels have waived their sound recording copyright royalties to have their music featured on SmoothJazz.com, Inc. Additional resources on this subject are available at SaveInternetRadio.org |
