U.S. Copyright board hands death blow to Small Webcasters

Just sharing with you these striking news on behalf of the Celtic Radio Team...

We are writing to let you know that due to some changes to U.S. copyright law involving webcasting, most small webcasters will be shutting down on January 1st, 2016 or shortly thereafter. Live365.com, one of the largest independent broadcasters, is also scheduled to close down on January 31, 2016 unless something drastically changes with U.S. copyright law.

Celtic Radio is not closing down, but has made the decision to move our channels over to Radionomy.com. Radionomy is a Belgium company that acquired the U.S. made assets of Shoutcast.com and the popular Winamp media player. They have agreements with the major labels and provide full coverage for producers to continue their shows. It is a good fit for Celtic Radio because we really have a global audience of listeners and musicians.

This change in copyright law is a big blow for music genres that don't make hundreds of millions of dollars a year in streaming music and will also hurt independent and family musicians that are just starting out trying to get a name for themselves. Culturally what the U.S. is doing will make the music you hear less diverse in the U.S. by forcing an unrealistic business model which is based on profitability of the music. So while artists like Taylor Swift and Pitbull are going to be getting a windfall in royalty payments, a small town Scots-Irish band from Missouri is not going to be able to get their message out on Internet Radio because the cost to stream their music is prohibitive as follows:

In order to support 25 listeners a month the cost to stream would be over $1,000 a month or $40 a month paid by those 25 listeners. Most people and most of our listeners don't have $40 a month to spend on Internet Radio as part of their monthly budget. And so that Scots-Irish band will lose out on the promotion and CD/Download sales of their music in favor of big-time musicians that generate millions of dollars a year through advertising and royalty payments.

People in Washington are out of touch. Through the laws they enact, they are sending our businesses overseas and making it impossible for cultural music to be heard on the Internet. Time to hold Washington accountable for their actions, not just on this issue, but on other issues too like sending our jobs overseas and entering into trade pacts that further marginalize the U.S. worker. And so I would invite you to raise this and other issues with your congressman or senator. Time to hold them accountable for their actions and if they don’t want to listen to you, vote them out!

Slàinte (Good Health!),

Celtic Radio Network
http://www.celticradio.net
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