Tuesday, June 26, 2007



Internet Radio Day of Silence: One day is enough! savenetradio.org

So, if you're like me, music is an integral part of your day. I am an avid listener to an internet radio station, and recent events have me worried.

The future of Internet radio is in immediate danger. Royalty rates for webcasters have been drastically increased by a recent ruling and are due to go into effect on July 15 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!). To protest these rates and encourage the millions of net radio listeners to take action and contact their Congressional representatives, today is a national Day of Silence.


savenetradio.org

When my beloved WOXY went off the air last year, they were resurrected for the 3rd time by an angel in the guise of lala.com. But, had they stayed off the air, I would have had many other options. If the royalty rate increase goes through as planned, that's it. Across the board, mainstream and alternative entertainment sources will suffer, and that's sad. So make your voice heard if you care about internet radio.

On a related topic, WOXY's benefactor, lala.com, have now launched a DRM-free music service that will download music directly to your iPod, bypassing iTunes. How successful will this be? Well, it's gutsy, that's for sure, and a company well worth keeping an eye on.

On an unrelated topic, Danah Boyd's Apophenia blog is getting a massive number of hits in response to a blog-essay she posted recently on an apparent class separation between high school mySpace and FaceBook users. Unfortunately, many of the blog-essay's readers have apparently missed the point that the essay itself deals with teens, and is intended to open a dialog, not as an academic paper.

What amazes and saddens me is that Danah has intentionally put a blurb on the front page of her blog:
Welcome! If you're new, please check out Best-Of Apophenia. A feed for this blog is here.

Which I think is an absolutely brilliant idea, to situate the arguments that she is about to present. Unfortunately, most commentary on the blog is apparently made without the benefit of this context, which is really too bad.

When you read a post on a blog, try reading at the very least a few other posts before commenting; you might save yourself coming off as an ignorant ass!