Consider this my open letter to the RIAA
Jun. 29th, 2007 10:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jebbypalSo the day of Internet radio silence has passed, every day it looks like "net neutrality" will join it, and I keep having deep like thoughts and almost posting.
First, I have to say this: I love internet radio. Pandora happens to be my site of choice. But that's beside the point.
Until I started listening to internet radio in various forms about two years ago, I'd sworn off radio of all kinds. I couldn't stand the disc jockeys, the crass commercials, and the REPETITIVE music. It was always the same thing and not much of it very good, so I'd given up on it. Instead, I depended on my friends to turn me onto new music. As a result, I didn't purchase much at all --- I'm not saying I was illegally downloading or anything of the like -- I just didn't aquire much new music PERIOD. I had a lot of CD's and for the most part they satisfied me and occassionally I'd get something new as a gift or would hear a new group while visiting a friend. But during the five year period between college and discovering internet radio, I probably bought 20 cds.
In the two years since, I've easily bought more like 40, especially if we factor in eMusic.
Point of fact: internet radio stations introduced me to music I haven't heard on ANY radio station. Internet radio allowed me to find out who played what song without waiting on my tiptoes listening for weeks on end until it was revealed by a dj. Internet radio made music fun again.
These are things that should be considered by the RIAA should think long and hard about before it prices internet radio stations into oblivion. Because frankly, at the rate they're going, I'm going to sit over here and do my best to consume on Indie music that's not affiliated with the RIAA if at all possible. And hope like hell that more artists like Jon Crosby (VAST) start to distribute their music on their own.
Do you remember a time when it didn't seem like music was owned by a corporation? When your local DJ actually picked the songs that he wanted to play during his shift? When your local radio station was run by flesh and blood people that took your calls during the friday night request block when you were a teenager and the height of romance was to dedicate a song to the object of your affection? I do, vaguely.
Somehow, I think it's going to be one of those things that I'll be describing to my kids just like my grandparents telling me about days before sliced bread and when TV hadn't been invented.
I think that a lot of the things that we take for granted with the internet now won't exist in a few years. Oh, I know, the PTB will have you believe that Web2.0 will be worth it and all the bells and whistles will distract us into oblivion. But I'm going to have memories of using ICQ on 386 and 486 computers to talk to people in Australia and Israel even though the reply times were sometimes in the minutes and doing this as a teenager without nanny software looking over my shoulder. I'm going to remember the first fanvid I ever watched. And I'm going to remember FREE internet radio.
I only hope that I don't remember the day that free internet radio disappears for good. I'm not very confident about that though.
Feel free to add in your own thoughts in the comments.
First, I have to say this: I love internet radio. Pandora happens to be my site of choice. But that's beside the point.
Until I started listening to internet radio in various forms about two years ago, I'd sworn off radio of all kinds. I couldn't stand the disc jockeys, the crass commercials, and the REPETITIVE music. It was always the same thing and not much of it very good, so I'd given up on it. Instead, I depended on my friends to turn me onto new music. As a result, I didn't purchase much at all --- I'm not saying I was illegally downloading or anything of the like -- I just didn't aquire much new music PERIOD. I had a lot of CD's and for the most part they satisfied me and occassionally I'd get something new as a gift or would hear a new group while visiting a friend. But during the five year period between college and discovering internet radio, I probably bought 20 cds.
In the two years since, I've easily bought more like 40, especially if we factor in eMusic.
Point of fact: internet radio stations introduced me to music I haven't heard on ANY radio station. Internet radio allowed me to find out who played what song without waiting on my tiptoes listening for weeks on end until it was revealed by a dj. Internet radio made music fun again.
These are things that should be considered by the RIAA should think long and hard about before it prices internet radio stations into oblivion. Because frankly, at the rate they're going, I'm going to sit over here and do my best to consume on Indie music that's not affiliated with the RIAA if at all possible. And hope like hell that more artists like Jon Crosby (VAST) start to distribute their music on their own.
Do you remember a time when it didn't seem like music was owned by a corporation? When your local DJ actually picked the songs that he wanted to play during his shift? When your local radio station was run by flesh and blood people that took your calls during the friday night request block when you were a teenager and the height of romance was to dedicate a song to the object of your affection? I do, vaguely.
Somehow, I think it's going to be one of those things that I'll be describing to my kids just like my grandparents telling me about days before sliced bread and when TV hadn't been invented.
I think that a lot of the things that we take for granted with the internet now won't exist in a few years. Oh, I know, the PTB will have you believe that Web2.0 will be worth it and all the bells and whistles will distract us into oblivion. But I'm going to have memories of using ICQ on 386 and 486 computers to talk to people in Australia and Israel even though the reply times were sometimes in the minutes and doing this as a teenager without nanny software looking over my shoulder. I'm going to remember the first fanvid I ever watched. And I'm going to remember FREE internet radio.
I only hope that I don't remember the day that free internet radio disappears for good. I'm not very confident about that though.
Feel free to add in your own thoughts in the comments.
