AnnRKeyintheUSA
War Child
I heard there was a new law in congress that was going to force radio stations to pay the artist for all the songs they play. Already, smaller stations are saying they will go out of business if this happens. Smaller African American stations are especially hard hit. I know the 'pay the artist' thing has gone wild since the knocking of Napster and now people are threatened for listening on the computer and even playlist.com was hit up for it. But really, the radio stations? They have historically been the ADVERTISEMENT for the artist! They introduce new songs and albums, have the artists on the air when they come to town, announce when new albums come out and encourage people to listen and buy. They get free copies of albums intentionally sent out by artists and record companies for the purpose of getting exposure for the songs. In the days before internet, or even TV, this was how people found out about music they wanted to buy, and it still is to a large extent. If radio stations are forced to pay to play songs, will they? Or will some go under or just forget it? How will this affect the already lagging music industry?
Another undesirable result of this is that no radio station can afford to buy every song by every artist, meaning they will be offered packages by people who buy up rights to certain batches of songs and artists. This will only lead to radio becoming more boring and generic. Already I avoid my classic rock station because it's always just a handful of the same old songs by the same old artists, little variety, even among bands. I doubt they even have a playlist of 100 songs sometimes, they repeat the same ones so often. This means that no one is going to be able to dig deep for 'deep cuts' that were not in the package deal and many songs and artists will never be heard on the radio again. That is not a good advertisement for them, or good quality listening for us. Even older songs can sell when people hear a song on the radio and think, hey, I'm going to go buy that.
So my point is not only will this suck for stations and fans I can see it hurting more artists than it helps. This is bad for everyone.
Another undesirable result of this is that no radio station can afford to buy every song by every artist, meaning they will be offered packages by people who buy up rights to certain batches of songs and artists. This will only lead to radio becoming more boring and generic. Already I avoid my classic rock station because it's always just a handful of the same old songs by the same old artists, little variety, even among bands. I doubt they even have a playlist of 100 songs sometimes, they repeat the same ones so often. This means that no one is going to be able to dig deep for 'deep cuts' that were not in the package deal and many songs and artists will never be heard on the radio again. That is not a good advertisement for them, or good quality listening for us. Even older songs can sell when people hear a song on the radio and think, hey, I'm going to go buy that.
So my point is not only will this suck for stations and fans I can see it hurting more artists than it helps. This is bad for everyone.