Meanwhile back in the States, there’s good news and bad news for independent music. Payola investigations ramp up, and will hopefully lead to less graft and more opportunities for non-platinum artists to be heard.
More seriously, though, the U.S. Copyright Office is sounding the death knell for internet radio. A ruling passed on March 1st states that digital broadcasters must pay fees that conventional radio doesn’t—and for most stations, these fees exceed their entire annual revenue, often several times over. The fees apply retroactively to 2006, which means pretty much all the independently run internet radio stations will go under instantly when this takes effect.
If this happens to frustrate the hell out of you, there are things you can do about it.