Internet Radio Fans - Listen Up

Here's a copy of a letter I just received in my inbox:

Hi, it's Tim from Pandora,

I'm writing today to ask for your help. The survival of Pandora and all of Internet radio is in jeopardy because of a recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC to almost triple the licensing fees for Internet radio sites like Pandora. The new royalty rates are irrationally high, more than four times what satellite radio pays and broadcast radio doesn't pay these at all. Left unchanged, these new royalties will kill every Internet radio site, including Pandora.

In response to these new and unfair fees, we have formed the SaveNetRadio Coalition, a group that includes listeners, artists, labels and webcasters. I hope that you will consider joining us.

Please sign our petition urging your Congressional representative to act to save Internet radio: http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/?alertid=9631541

Please feel free to forward this link/email to your friends - the more petitioners we can get, the better.

Understand that we are fully supportive of paying royalties to the artists whose music we play, and have done so since our inception. As a former touring musician myself, I'm no stranger to the challenges facing working musicians. The issue we have with the recent ruling is that it puts the cost of streaming far out of the range of ANY webcaster's business potential.

I hope you'll take just a few minutes to sign our petition - it WILL make a difference. As a young industry, we do not have the lobbying power of the RIAA. You, our listeners, are by far our biggest and most influential allies.

As always, and now more than ever, thank you for your support.

Most everyone I know who spends a good deal of time online listens to some form of internet radio. It really bums me out to think that Pandora, LastFM, Live365, and many others will be forced to shut down due to short-sighted, greedy legislation (which I doubt will benefit musicians as much as the powers-that-be would have you believe). No matter what your stand on current copyright laws, I don't think I am alone when I say that I have PURCHASED music that I was introduced to on one of the afforementioned webcasts (Pandora has done more for expanding my musical horizons more than any other station, online or off).

I hope you'll give SaveNetRadio.org a look.