Radio needs research

I thought got out of the radio research business back in 1999. But, like the Mob, just when you think you're out, they pull ya back in!

NAB member broadcast groups are at risk of Congress legislating a $1 billion (or more!) a year transfer of their profits (and that's close to half of industry profits!) to the record industry if somehow the RIAA pushes through a sound recordings performance copyright for music played on terrestrial radio. (The $1 billion figure is assuming that Congress or the Copyright Office imposes a 5%-of-revenues royalty, which is in the ballpark of the rate that satellite radio is rumored to be paying.)

And if that happens, I hate to say it, but radio groups almost deserve it. Why? Because they've done nothing to demonstrate to the general public, to journalists, to musicians, to independent record labels, and, most importantly, to Congress that RADIO AIRPLAY IS PROMOTIONAL IN NATURE!

I've tried to do my bit. When small webcasters first launched a website, SaveTheStreams.org, to protest the CRB royalty rate decision, we added a petition that listeners could sign. I paid an extra few bucks out of my own pocket to add a brief user survey -- one closed-ended question ("Thanks to Internet radio, have your CD (or music download) purchases (1) gone up, (2) stayed the same, or (3) gone down?") and two open-ended questions ("Do you feel that the existence of Internet radio helps or hurts the music industry?" and "Any other comments?").

Over 62,000 people signed the petition, coming from a wide variety of different webcasters' sites, and the vast majority gave reasonably thoughtful and insightful answers to the open-ended questions.

You can look at some of their answers here. (By the way, you can replace the "1250" in the URL with any number between "1" and "1250"; each page will show you 50 signatures.):

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/saveinternetradio/signatures-1250.html

Terrestrial radio needs to replace my question about "Internet radio" with, simply, "radio", and needs a more-rigourous research design. A good study might cost $100K. But there is $1 billion a year at stake! Jeez!

Radio needs to make the point that the lack of this particular royalty in the U.S. (as opposed to in other countries) was, yes, a "historical accident"... but that it's a historical accident that led to the U.S.'s record industry becoming the largest, most successful, and most profitable in the world!


THAT'S JUST A FIRST DRAFT. REVISION COMING SOON.