Man, I still don't know how to feel about all of this. As a musician, I understand wanting to get paid, but at the same time I see the RIAA as an organization of greed that oversteps it's bounds constantly. And that takes away from the "pay the artist" argument. The more I think about it, the whole industry is like this playground bully who's been taking your lunch money for so long, now that people are starting to say "no", they're throwing a tantrum. There's really no need for them. The Internet cuts the middle man. Dude said "The creation of music is suffering because of declining sales". Bullshit. I bet that guy doesn't know the first thing about the creation of music.

The whole Internet radio law seems steeped in greed as well, the attitude being "let's make sure this is economically set up so it's something we can control". The goal perhaps being to make it the way traditional radio is today. I'm sure there was a time when it seemed any schmo could have his own radio station. Because of laws like these and the politicians who support them, those days are long gone. We could be part of a generation that one days says "I remember when anyone could've started their own Internet radio station".

At the same time, this hardly seems a cause celebre. I haven't seen a really decent, clear argument of why this law is so bad, what it will do, why it shouldn't happen, etc. It seems one of those things where the average person just thinks "well, musicians should get paid" and that's as far as they get into it. That's when these politicians know they've got plenty of room to play with, without the political fallout.

It irritates me that musicians are not allowed to opt out of the system. If your music get played the licensing authority collects royalties for you. If you want those royalties you must join the licensing authority. If you don't join they keep the money. It's extortion and racketeering.

The goal perhaps being to make it the way traditional radio is today.

That's the most insidious part of the whole thing... There's so much music and so many musicians who've become popular via internet that would never be on the radar if all stations were like current traditional radio.

I think that pretty much all internet radio listeners want performers to be paid, and are willing to pay them - but aren't at all interested in all broadcast being controlled by a handful of rich media conglomerates that dictate what everyone hears and buys. There's so much unexplored middle ground, and it's unfortunate that there's no body that has the technical, industry, media, and law experience to put it all together.