PENDING DOOM for net radio:
The region’s relative isolation is balanced by a techie overlay, incubated by the large universities in Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and James Madison in Harrisonburg. There are Net-savvy tinkers and entrepreneurs in those rolling hills. In nearby Waynesboro in June 2006 I81.fm—a Net radio station clearinghouse for the region—was born.
And next week, absent an 11th hour compromise on the licensing fees Net radio operators must pay, I81.fm, serving 35,000 listeners a day, will die.
And we still have a round of rent-seeking to look forward to:
The goal is nothing less than a licensing regime for all digital music that recognizes no ownership rights, fair or otherwise. In its place will be a digital licensing fee tacked on to every broadband customer’s bill, right alongside the other mysterious fees and taxes that serve the political status quo.
This is disappointing for lots of reasons, but I’m still vaguely optimistic on both fronts.
First, while it will be disruptive and painful as we watch the transition being royally botched, the content issue may become moot. There is simply too much quality music being generated outside of the grasp of the traditional royalty structure, and it’s getting easier to find. For example, I think Marc Gunn’s excellent Irish and Celtic Music Podcast is more enjoyable than NPR’s Thistle and Shamrock. They cover the same genre, but the podcast consists mostly of the work of lesser-known artists, who have given their permission to be included in the monthly show. I find myself buying more of their music, and I sleep better. (That is, given that entertainment funded partly at the point of a gun differs only in degree from, say, buying clothes produced with slave labor.)
Second, I won’t be surprised if (and will be delighted when) distibution — the pipe into the home — eventually moves outside the bounds of regulated utilities. If deregulation doesn’t accomplish this, innovation will.