The Day The Music Died.

Well the first of many of my favorite online music stations signed off last night for the last time in light of the Recording Industry Assoc of America's Rights and Royalties Board decision last fall to dramatically increase (300 %) the royalties internet radio must pay for songs. Understanding that most internet radio stations cant afford the new royalties, the legislation was simply designed to shut them down.

For those of you who don't know, the recording industry is notorious for being one the most greedy industries in America. These people have exploited musicians and artists for decades, making millions of dollars on their backs, only passing along a small percentage of the revenues generated to the performers themselves. They are so threatened by the popularity of internet media and too ignorant to figure out how to leverage it themselves, they would rather create legal hurdles that cripple the industry than work with the stations on a mutually agreeable solution.

Of course many of the stations will bounce back, relocating their servers to Europe, but it just irritates me that the RIAA yields so much power. it's because of jackasses like this that we are quickly approaching a pay-for-everything lifestyle. Radio has always been free to listeners, except to those willing to pay for non-commercial satellite radio. Internet radio still has a relatively small saturation and niche stations like Music One are only helping to promote wider awareness for the artists themselves. If traditional radio folks had it their way, they would only allow music to be played on your home or car stereo.